Picture of the day

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We lost a fair number as well. Back in the early 70's when I was a young Fitter working on 104's, I jumped at the chance of a ride in a 104 and ended up getting 2 rides.
Being a whole lot older and wiser now, I'd give it a pass. Sh1t no......... Damn it, I would still love to have another one......

Wasnt there a story that linked the Luftwaffe casualty rate for their 104’s to the weight and placement of the specific avionic package the Luftwaffe employed? Not that I would fully understand these issues.
 
Wilhelmshaven was one of the ‘homes’ to the Kreigsmarine .... somewhere I have some snapshots of what I believe are ‘miniature subs’ but not sure if they were taken there or Bremerhaven .... or even if the Germans had miniature subs?!!

Yes, nearly a half dozen types, most notably the Biber, Molch and Seehund.
 
Wasnt there a story that linked the Luftwaffe casualty rate for their 104’s to the weight and placement of the specific avionic package the Luftwaffe employed? Not that I would fully understand these issues.

I think one of the issues was that they had decided (foolishly) in the late fifties, early sixties to use the F104, a high-altitude interceptor, for every role the airforce needed including low level ground support (Jagdbomber). It wasn't meant to be.
Early models ejection seats went down to avoid the high T-tail.

There were also a whole lot of issues with quality of manufacturing.
Plus the fifties and sixties German Luftwaffe leadership had still a different attitude, being mostly comprised of old WWII pilots who had seen lot worse.
 
Saw a reference stating we had 37 fatalities with the CF104 in Canadian service. Not sure how many.were destroyed To hazard a guess at least 37.

About 110 CF-104/CF-104Ds were lost in accidents, out of 239 delivered - a loss rate of no less than 46 percent. However, it is only fair to point out that the Canadian CF-104s probably had the highest-flying time of any country operating the Starfighter. At the time of retirement, average airframe times were in the order of 6000 hours as compared to 2000 hours for the Luftwaffe.
 
About 110 CF-104/CF-104Ds were lost in accidents, out of 239 delivered - a loss rate of no less than 46 percent. However, it is only fair to point out that the Canadian CF-104s probably had the highest-flying time of any country operating the Starfighter. At the time of retirement, average airframe times were in the order of 6000 hours as compared to 2000 hours for the Luftwaffe.

From Canadian Starfighter Association
 
Starfighter records
http://www.i-f-s.nl/f-104-records

some pretty impressive results ..... the one CF starfighter pilot I spoke with at length said they “could outrun anything on the deck”

- fwiw

(I have no concept of what he meant by ‘deck’ but I nodded my head wisely anyway— when I am traveling fast ‘on the deck’ - there is barely 4 1/2 inches between my floorboards and the pavement - I try not to think of this!!)
 
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The armoured cruiser USS San Diego (ACR-6), just now confirmed by the US Navy to have fallen victim to a mine on July 19, 1918, laid by the German U-boat U-156, which herself fell victim to a mine a couple of months later.
 
Interestingly when I copied the ship picture to my ship file it was labeled USS California ?

I suspect a name change when to the US renamed her cruisers with state names to city names so state names could be used for battleships.

For those interested in the US Navy of that era I recommend;

The American Steel Navy : A Photographic History of the U.S. Navy From the Introduction of the Steel Hull in 1883 to the Cruise of the Great White Fleet, 1907-1909, Book
by Alden, John Doughty
 
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Interestingly when I copied the ship picture to my ship file it was labeled USS California ?

I suspect a name change when to the US renamed her cruisers with state names to city names so state names could be used for battleships.

For those interested in the US Navy of that era I recommend;

The American Steel Navy : A Photographic History of the U.S. Navy From the Introduction of the Steel Hull in 1883 to the Cruise of the Great White Fleet, 1907-1909, Book
by Alden, John Doughty

According to google:

"California was renamed San Diego on 1 September 1914, in order to free up her original name for use with the Tennessee-class battleship California."
 
These guys conquered most of Eurasia (except Japan) at one time. And are still a pretty tough bunch.
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