Yet, just as The Right Stuff suggests, the F-104 could be a finicky machine. The jet’s safety record was, frankly, atrocious. The West German Luftwaffe, who had received 916 Starfighters from ...

It was also a widely exported craft, notably being purchased by the German Luftwaffe. The F-104 was the result of hard lessons learned from the Korean War, after which American pilots insisted ...