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It was the first aircraft to do sustained Mach 2 flight and the first to hold speed and altitude records simultaneously, as well as the first to reach 100,000 feet. The Starfighter had a terrible safety record. It had tiny wings, a thin, heavy fuselage and a T-tail that created serious aerodynamic issues. In addition, early J79 engines were notoriously unreliable. The USAF bought some F-104s for the Air Defense Command as stopgap interceptors until F-106s arrived. It also bought some F-104s as interim fighter-bombers until the F-105 was available. The USAF only purchased 296 F-104s. The small fuselage limited internal fuel capacity and prevented it from having a powerful radar. When F-105s and F-106s arrived, only a year after the F-104 (which was itself delayed), the Zipper was assigned limited duty. Some served in Vietnam. However, improved F-104s sold very well overseas in smaller nations, serving until 2004. Long range was not important in Europe, and the small nose cone could contain miniaturized radars. This overseas success was tainted when investigators found in 1975 Lockheed spent millions of dollars in bribes to sell aircraft to foreign customers.

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, taken with an DSLR-A580 01/12 2017 The picture taken with 28.0mm, f/11.0s, 1/800s, ISO 800

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