CHE FOTO STUPENDA LENDER!!!
Quello schema mimetico del 36mo era stupendo!
Comunque da Wikipedia USA ecco qualche dettaglio sul
mission book degli F-104, con note tutt'altro che soddisfacenti:
Vietnam War
Commencing with the Operation Rolling Thunder campaign, the Starfighter was used both in the air-superiority role and in the air support mission; although it saw little aerial combat and scored no air-to-air kills, Starfighters were successful in deterring MiG interceptors.[10] Starfighter squadrons made two deployments to Vietnam, the first being from April 1965 to November 1965, flying 2,937 combat sorties. During that first deployment, two Starfighters were shot down by ground fire, one was shot down by a Chinese MiG-19 (Shenyang J-6) when the F-104 strayed over the border, and two F-104s were lost to a mid-air collision associated with that air-to-air battle.[11] The 476th Tactical Fighter Squadron deployed to Vietnam in April 1965 through July 1965, losing one Starfighter; and the 436th Tactical Fighter Squadron deployed to Vietnam in July 1965 through October 1965, losing four.[12]
Starfighters returned to Vietnam when the 435th Tactical Fighter Squadron deployed from June 1966 until July 1967, in which time they flew a further 2,269 combat sorties, for a total of 5,206 sorties. Nine more F-104s were lost; two F-104s to ground fire, three to surface-to-air missiles, and the final four losses were operational (engine failures). The Starfighters rotated and/or transitioned to F-4 Phantoms in July 1967, having lost a total of 14 F-104s to all causes in Vietnam.[13][14]
The USAF was less than satisfied with the Starfighter and procured only 296 examples in single-seat and two-seat versions.[14]
1967 Taiwan Strait Conflict
On 13 January 1967, four Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Force F-104G aircraft engaged a formation of 12 MiG-19s of the People's Liberation Army Air Force over the disputed island of Kinmen. One MiG-19 was claimed shot down with one F-104 also lost.[16]
India-Pakistan Wars
At dawn on 6 September 1965, Flight Lieutenant Aftab Alam Khan in an F-104 claimed a Dassault Mystère IV destroyed over West Pakistan and another damaged, to mark the start of aerial combat in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. At that time it was claimed as the first combat kill by any Mach 2 aircraft, and the first missile kill for the Pakistan Air Force. Indian sources dispute this claim.[17] The PAF lost one F-104 Starfighter during the 1965 operations, scoring two kills in return, during the 1971 war, the Starfighter was no longer considered a dreaded fighter after MIG-21's success in every combat. However one of the F-104 Starfighter's victim was an Alize aircraft which belonged to the Indian Navy, which was shot down when a Starfighter was returning home from an aborted mission.[18]
The Starfighter is also believed to have been instrumental in intercepting an Indian Air Force Folland Gnat earlier, on 3 September 1965. F-104s were vectored to intercept the Gnat flying over Pakistan, returning to its home base. The F-104s, closing in at supersonic speed, caused the Gnat pilot to lower the undercarriage and land at a nearby disused Pakistani airfield to surrender. The Indian AF claims Squadron Leader Brij Pal Singh (who later rose to be an Air Marshal) made a navigation error that led him to land on the Pakistani airstrip. Singh was taken as a POW and later released.[18] The IAF Gnat is now displayed at the PAF Museum, Karachi. In the 1971 war, four F-104As were lost in combat against the IAF MiG-21s. [19]
Insomma, considerando solo gli abbattimenti durante i dog-fight, lo starfighter si porta a casa un davvero poco encomiabile bilancio a sfavore di 5 a 7!
Abbattimenti: un Mig-19, un mystere IV, un Alize, 2 imprecisati
Perdite sofferte: 2 da Mig-19, 4 da Mig-21, 1 imprecisato
Questo messaggio è stato modificato da paperinik: 10 febbraio 2009 - 15:43
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