Fighters Anthology
ACM versus the F-104 Starfighter
My idea here was to test the Air Combat performance of a few jets against the F-104 StarFighter. (Piloted by the ham-fists of yours truly!)
BAE Strikemaster taking off... it needs a L O N G runway!
Italian F-104 Starfighter
A quick and easy mission over the Agean... so I thought!
First I took up a BAE Strikemaster. This baby has a long takeoff roll as I discovered. Ah, and don't rotate too early either.... you might run out of runway as I did... twice!! Anyway, moving right along, I concluded that perhaps one shouldn't dogfight in a strike aircraft.
And so into the A-4 SkyHawk. Mmmm, they must have tweaked the F-104 since the USNF version... that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
My A-4 Skyhawk is about to get trounced severely by the F-104... again!!!
Check out the arrogant Starfighter pilot coming over inverted to gloat at his victory... not very nice... A MiG-29 was next into the crucible. Mmmmmm .... do we see a pattern emerging here? I think so... the bogey gets high and wins.... I get low and lose!
OK the gloves are off now. Into an F-16 with a load of AMRAAMs. Aha that thinned the pack a bit... although an F-16 versus F-104's is hardly a fair fight... oh well.... at this stage I needed all the help I could get!
Time to give myself an unfair advantage I think
The sole remaining Italian F-104 Starfighter headed skyward on full burner. I headed home!