F-104. A manned missile with a rotary cannon and smaller missiles strapped to it. The Orkiest of American designs.

Me: hears "head on" My brain: "Apply directly to the forehead"

the US F-104 was the starfighter. The widowmaker was the german version of the F-104 beacuse the germans heavily modified it. While it had better speed the reliability was way worse and often crash at early stages of its service time in the german airforce

@sxrr-01

6 ай бұрын

They tried to make a all-weather bomber... What could possibly go wrong if you have a flying pencil as a starting point...

@markin2067

6 ай бұрын

@@sxrr-01 you mean all-weather interceptor beacuse i can't see a F-104 going big bombs?

@user-mx1fq6qm6i

6 ай бұрын

​@@markin2067 No. West Germany, in their grand wisdom, decide to take the F-104, a Mach 2 interceptor, and use it as a multirole aircraft. And the rest is history.

@markin2067

6 ай бұрын

@@user-mx1fq6qm6i good to know

@kleiner_schwarzer_kater859

6 ай бұрын

... and a dangerous lack of training and negligent maintenance did its part, too. But at least they installed an ejector seat that fired UPwards! ;) But other countries used the plane in the ground role, too. The one hitting the ground a few hundert meters short of my village in the 80s after a busted training attack on the SAM base a few hills away was form the netherlands. One mission kill to the common German spruce. 😃 (Btw, the pilot survived thank to "Martin Baker").

You can cross the map with one minute fuel if you start at 1000 kph and cut throttle to 40%.

Lockheed developed this fighter in the 50's. It's one of the Kelly Johnson's babies. By the early 60's, Lockheed uprated it to the General Electric J-79 Augmented turbojet engine. This engine defined speed and acceleration in the 60's. It was used in pairs on the McDonald Douglas F-4 Phantoms, and in quads on the B-58 Hustler. The Starfighter was a lightweight, low drag fighter with enough engine to act like a rocket ship. Even by today's modern fighter standards, it's hard to out accelerate or out top speed the 104. Not bad for an old 1950's fighter. A literal hotrod looking for a purpose. Ultimately, the U.S. Airforce didn't really know what to do with it, except set time to altitude, and top speed records. As an interceptor, it could take off, reach over 25,000 ft in 2 minutes or less, intercept a target over 100 miles away, and be wheels down, at home base, running on vapors, in less than 20 minutes. Only the British Lightning could do that kind of mission profile, (safer, better radar, over twice the price of a 104). It's rapid response, ease of manufacture, and a very reasonable price tag, made it an attractive licensed build project for many NATO countries. It's main success was as an exported, license built fighter that could get at those Soviet Bombers quickly. And yes, Lockheed's upper management was slimey, but in their defense, nobody in the states could do a deal like this without bribing the slimy European leaders. This aircraft taught many nations how to build their first mach 2 fighter. And they were cheap for the performance, and unforgiving. Play by her rules, or die. If the aircraft leaves controlled flight, recovery is impossible. Couple that, with the early examples having a downward firing ejection seat, annnnd splat. It is what it is. Europe loved the performance, and affordability, and tried ro make a multi-role fighter out of it. The best were made in Italy. 1950's hot rod...I love it. Fast, and dangerous.

What I like the most is that, at some point astronauts had this plane to get around the country. Sort of a company car.

I find it easy to not die but hard to get more than 1-2 kills... It takes forever to set up BaZ attacks and if you miss its gonna be like 1-1.5 minutes before you get your second pass on em. If your aim is good, headons are free money

RB Last 8 games playing my British 8.7's ,7 out of 8 had these as top dogs in battle. This and a few Mig21SPS. Causing slaughter, that speed advantage they deside the fight.

I’m gonna try the f104 now

104 is chronically under-BR'd in RB:Air, but that's more the fault of the BR system compression around Rank VI/VII squishing together everything from F86s, Meteors and 262s in with 104s, 21s, and Lightnings. Played properly they're basically untouchable, and against that subsonic Korean era stuff it's like dumping a Mako in a goldfish pond. One oddly reliable counter is the Sea Vixen - terrific climb rate and energy retention, and the slaved missiles work extremely well once you're inside the 104s turn... but you have to basically ambush him once he's bled energy.

@dirtyann

6 ай бұрын

Man Im facing them every fucking match in my mig15 bis... So fucking annoying, the only thing doable is dodging.

@duncanhamilton5841

5 ай бұрын

@@dirtyann tell me about it - I've abandoned most of my mid 8 grinds. Something like the Javelin is just an XP pinata on a drive by for them. Can't do anything about it.

@dirtyann

5 ай бұрын

@@duncanhamilton5841 yup

@JohnPaulFrew

5 ай бұрын

Another decent counter i've found for slight uptier is the T-2, it's a little slower but if you ambush one, the two aim-9Ps will absolutely kill a 104. Other fighters equipped with IR missiles I've tried are alright, but there are few 9.3 answers to the 104.

Glad someone can like it. It’s just not fun to me getting railed by missiles 24/7;-;

I BnZ with the Starfighter--when I perch myself high up and dive on them--they always turn away. Maybe I should rely more on the cannon than I do on the missiles. I always loved this fighter ever since The Right Stuff but I'm lousy at it in WT.

@SliceofLife7777

11 күн бұрын

Some fighters in this tier had radar warning recievers. Turn off the radar, you seldom need it.

I literally just had a game with this guy 😂

I can't make this plane work, I get slaughtered trying to use it

I just unlocked this thing and my aim is all over the place with the cannon. Any tips on improving aim with this thing?

hey tankenstein im currently playing france rn at 7.7 br im only play ground so get attack by CAS alot what plane do you recommend for anti cas and some CAS abilities .thank you

@guerrinlove69

5 ай бұрын

If you can afford it, get the French Yak 3 when it goes on sale. I used that as anti-CAS all the way up to 6.7 to great effect. Then the next do-it-all plane is the f4u7 at 6.0. I still use that at 7.7. It has access to SNEB pods and it's a very good all around fighter with quad 20mm's.

It this live commentary or after the games ?

this plane was horrible when I was grinding it because the F-14 was at 11.3

Next up its counterparts mig21f and lightning f6?

as someone who bought the a10 origionally for ground i hate using it in air battles because its always the number 1 target which makes air grind hard but i cant afford to buy a different premium yet 😭

@Kongjie57

6 ай бұрын

if/when you do get another premium, get the F5C trust me. Av8a has a chunky flight model and a really annoying engine you need to micromanage to avoid overheating. The F5C is a bit of a high learning curve, but its the most rewarding to use satisfaction wise, and also the most effective way to grind the US Air tree.

@soul9849

5 ай бұрын

f4s is probably a better grinder, but the f5c is definitely a more enjoyable experience@@Kongjie57

On a scale of 1-10 how vroom?

Which ammo belt were you using? Maybe consider showing your loading screen so folks can see stuff.

@oofdotcom420

6 ай бұрын

Use your head dude

@cq4538r

6 ай бұрын

Most likely he's using the air target belts... cause you know, they're meant for use against air targets

Historically the reason the German pilots had such bad luck with the f-104 is two reasons. One the ejection seat was downwards in some model. And two German Air force went from subsonic aircraft this monster and they could not be flown the same way.

@_Am0N_

6 ай бұрын

I wonder why u didnt mentioned the stupid idea to use the 104 for CAS

@hawk1559

6 ай бұрын

​@@_Am0N_because when you lose the engine there is no difference

I considered commenting

FINALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The F104-C is better in my oppinion. you can make extra points in firststriking a base.

how do i counter aim 9Ls

This thing should be 9.7 RB

I'm amazed at how many people complain about this thing not being good. It's literally so easy to play lmfao.

"Should of got the kill! Gosh-diggity-darn-it!" Good line. Do I detect a hint of a Quagmire reference?!? Edit* Whoops, Guagmire said, "giggity"; not "diggity."

F104G

Hi

Idk how seal clubbers do it, if I play for fun it’s okay. If I try to get a certain amount of activity points for an event I hate every minute. Spend half a game setting up that kill shot to have someone come through a building and hit you out of nowhere. Over. And over. And over. Fk me

actually NOT.. hard to fly yes.. hard to use to.. YES....... the most accidents with the airplane was pilot errors ..... that airplane did not forgive an error.... and that was in HAF that served over 30 years had minimum accidents

Love fighting against this thing in my SAAB

Meanwhile the F-104A in Arcade Battles dealing with a 9.7 BR and having to deal with way more advanced radar and heat seeking missiles - 'b---shit I don't need countermeasures!'. At 9.3 - yeah these tactics work and can easily rack up the kills by taking advantage of the fact a lot of things are slower with no CM so even a B can hit even if some things have better missiles like 9E's. 9.7 in AB it routinely has to deal with 11.0's that got themselves down to 10.7 MM, so being bottom tier is a way more nightmarish fight cause a lot of planes can run you down, or keep pace and out maneuver you, with significantly better missiles and CM.

@AllahWarrior

6 ай бұрын

Arcade 💀

yo

im sigma

bruh

SECOND

The F104A/C should go to 10.0 totally OP for 9.3 and 9.7

@DiamantHaren

6 ай бұрын

Fun fact it was 10.0 for 2 years but then it was buffed to 9.3 because of all-aspect and 30g missiles

@miquelescribanoivars5049

11 күн бұрын

Currently trying to spade the F-104J, and I can tell you even after the BR decompression its a painfull experience. So far the Hydra haven't saved me from missiles once 😅