My favorite episode. I always got pumped seeing that jet at the start. It was magic thinking they were in my time period. I was a big 12 inch G.I. Joe fan & mine was the action pilot. What a great Christmas that was.
I was 9 and got a 3" refracting telescope that Christmas. Everything was possible. Even breaking the cosmic speed limit and a schism in Time itself. Aw take me back. I'm ready. Lets all go back
Of all of the episodes and of all of the series and ST films ever made this was the one that hooked me on Star Trek. To this day, this is still my favorite episode, bar none.
Yep... didn't they determine that the wings were too stubby and the engines too powerful that rendered the air frame very unstable in flight. It killed so many pilots.
@@cameraman655 Absolutely, did you know it was the basis for the U2? Kelly Johnson figured, "Hey, I could put glider wings on this and..." I believe a privately owned F104 set a sealevel speed record (those are very difficult, fighters can only reach their max speed at altitude.) I think the F15 was something like Mach 1.25 @ sealevel (or something like that.) I don't know what project it was (could hve been the U2) but KJ was supposed to scrap all the tooling for some fighter L manufactured but he decided to save it and ended up using it. Don't remember any other details on that one.
I was friends witth a Lockheed test pilot for the F104. He told me some great stories about it. He went on to be an SR71 test pilot. He said he was selected to fly the Blackbird because he had more time in the F104 than anyone else, and that anyone that could fly the F104 could fly the Blackbird.
The strap on Capt. Christopher's oxygen mask is the same type of strap used by Buzz Aldrin when he wore his Omega Speedmaster as the first person to ever wear a watch on the Lunar Surface. Neil Armstrong kept his Speedmaster hanging on the LM so he could time the creators as landmarks for timing his flight path. Both were .321 cal Omega Speedmasters. The strap was extra long so that it could be wrapped around the outside of his spacesuit. I'm an Apollo 11 nurd and a Speedmaster owner of a pre-lunar model .861 cal purchased in 1969 before the July landing. The .321 cal was just changed over in Oct. 1968 to the newer .861 cal model. The .321s are hard to come by but the 861s had a higher beat frequency from 18 to 21 kz. But Omega very recently started to remake the .321 cal. with a Platinum case. It's presently selling for about $9.800. U.S. as of Aug. 2019. For anybody who cares. The .861 was redesigned from the .321 Lemania movement used in the Patek Philippe watches back in the day. Although the .321 was more difficult to make, the .861 was easier to produce and was more accurate. But a true Omega Moonwatch was the .321 cal Lemonia movement, not the .861 which was later adapted by NASA for subsequent moon missions. So, the .861 was still considered an original moonwatch. Mine is now 50 years old and it still works. Yes, I had it "tuned up" in 1990 for $300 U.S. Omega gave me a newer watchband and new pushers and rubber seals. But they also returned the original parts to me except the original watch band. Nobody, not even Omega back in the 80s knew the Speedmaster would become such an iconic watch.
I have a relative who got one when he was in the Navy in the mid 60s before Apollo 11 landed. He paid like 75 bucks for it. Still has it, still works fine. It's been serviced two or three times since then. When you got yours serviced did they freshen up the lume paint? After 50+ years it's pretty faded and only glows for a few minutes after being in the sun.
I think the radar operators would be more than confused to see an object of the size of a battleship, flying around in the air zone, I think they would believe the radar is broken.
Scene is very futuristic in how conventional aircraft try I.D. and pursue UFO's except alien response sequence would not be so slow to identify- but instantaneous. Documented cases show pursuit plane is either vaporized, disappears, or crashes.
Documented cases show the pursuit plane capturing the UAP on video for a while, then being unable to keep up with it, with no hostile action by the UAP.
The first airing of this episode, I thought " what happened to my show?" Thinking the tv station substituted a military show. Upon seeing the Enterprise, it was WOW! I didn't know much of any "Vulcan details" about aeronautics, tractor beams, transportors then.
Given that the pace of producing a weekly US TV series in the 60s was very quick, it was impressive that Star Trek managed to do so well in their use of specific stock footage, such as all the filmed F-104 shots in this episode and all the Saturn V shots used in Assignment Earth. The staff paid attention to such details. Unlike some other shows. I recall seeing a sequence in one Six Million $ Man episode where Steve was taking off, flying and landing in a fighter jet, and no less than three very different looking planes were shown.
That was my thought exactly! I was expecting anything Star Trek, and was slightly disappointed when I saw the f-104... But hey I like planes too so I watched and OMG my two favorite subjects put together the same show!
I thought the very same thing in 1974! Star Trek aired every afternoon at 3 or 4 o'clock on one of the local stations that summer. I nearly turned off the set to go back outside for some more bike riding when I heard the first strains of "Star Trek" music at 0:35.
The type of nuclear yield available to a F-104 of the time would be 1.5 kilotons for the nuclear-tipped AIR-2A Genie, an unguided rocket with a range of almost 10 km. The fighter could also carry unguided gravity bombs which could range in yield from 70 kilotons to 1.45 megatons.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter
@@dogsbd Respectfully, I disagree regarding the "operational" aspect of your statement. My understanding from a pilot with over 5,000 hours in the 104 is that a single limited yeild nuke could be mounted under the center hard point. Whether it was and to what extent during training is classified, so he wouldn't divulge that information, but he was stationed at Ramstein AFB in the mid-1970s at the time.
Fondly called the "Missile with a man in it". At the time this episode was made I had one I built hanging from my bedroom ceiling. Coolest jet I ever saw at the time. It would be 1 or 2 more years before I discovered the insane SR-71.
One of my favorite episodes! When I was young and saw this on TV, I had a Gi Joe pilot wearing the same uniform! I would get him out and reenact this scene when this was on! 😂
@@haroldhumerickhouse7904 It was mostly a matter of training. Most early jets were very dangerous to fly by modern standards due to having unusual quirks. That's what happens when you're on the bleeding edge of technology and in experimental territory. Once they figured out how to properly train for the F-104, and installed a better ejection system, the accident and fatality rate dropped dramatically. The F-104 was an excellent aircraft for its role and time; you just can't compare it to stuff that came later after they fully figured out what they were doing.
@@haroldhumerickhouse7904 Many beautiful things are also dangerous. The F-104 was a bleeding edge, ground breaking, high performance fighter, it held speed, altitude, and time to climb records all at once, That said, the F-104 had a better safety record than the F-84 that preceded it. Flying jets was a hazardous profession back then.
They were great for what they were designed to do. Just tech at that time was moving so fast they really didn't have time to make a name for themselves.
@@1337penguinmanIt's rather shocking how fast we went through new planes back then. We went from the Gloster Meteor in 1944 to F8 Crusaders and F4 Phantoms II in 1957/58. That's less time than my country has had it's F18 fleet.
The voice speaking in the beginning of this segment on the radio talking to "Bluejay 4" is the same actor who played the senior security guard who questioned Capt. Kirk after he and Sulu beamed down to the air force base and were arrested by the air force security team.
I initially thought this would be a mock battle between the air force and CVN-65, my first ship in the Navy, so it was pretty amusing to see the the Star Trek ship come out of the clouds.
"Sir, I don't understand how that crazy thing can even fly with that ridiculous, outlandish otherworldly layout and almost non-existent wings" "Soldier now is not the time to criticize the F-104 program, we have a UFO to catch"
Although the F-104 was know as "The widow maker" The Spanish Air Force (Ejercito del Aire) operated 21 F-104s for seven years (1965-1972) without a single loss.
The F104 was designed by Kelly Johnson and the skunk works to be deployed as a high speed high altitude interceptor. The West German Air Force used the plane as a low altitude low speed ground attack weapon, something it was never designed for. This resulted in an unusual high number of crashes.
@@billsanders5067 You know your stuff! In the Luftwaffe, non-combat missions, 269 crashes and 116 pilots killed. Erich Hartmann, the highest scoring Ace of WW II was also Chief of the Luftwaffe at the time. He was totally against the aircraft and there were allegations of some kind of bribes known as the "Lockeed Scandal." He was retired early in 1970.
That's because a Cabal runs the world. Hollywood is apart of it and anything they show you in movies and TV shows, they can already do. Unfortunately it's been hidden in secret black budget programs. Ben Rich from Lockheed Martin said back in 1993. "We have the technology to take ET home."
@@sharko121 Agree with the global cabal and Hollywood as their instrument of mind control. Disagree that humans could build anything remotely similar to Flying Tic-Tacs.
Lol.... the government couldn’t even keep Watergate under wraps or affect a regime change in a third world nation without it becoming a decades long quagmire and you think there is a global cabal? I have ocean front property in Arizona you might be interested in.
@@Bartonovich52 They managed to keep the SR-71 spy plane secret for 30 years. And most people today STILL does not know the real reason why the U.S. got involved in Vietnam. How many decades has it been?
Kirk could have beamed the pilot to the ground and drag the Stafighter to low earth orbit and let it burn up on re-entry. But, then the episode would have only lasted 10 minutes.
From the shot of the Enterprise below clouds at 2:46, one could assume that the altitude was below 15,000 to 20,000 feet. It would be interesting to hear them explain how the Enterprise was able to achieve the necessary aerodynamics for flying in Earth's atmosphere.
If you can bend the space-time to travel several times faster than light, at warp speed, and you can create artificial gravity on your decks, i think you can offset the Earth gravity It's all about doing "little alterations" in the Riemann's Tensor
@@Trompicavalas The issue isn't manipulating Einstein's general theory. The issue is dealing with mundane forces like wind resistance, lift, and drag for a huge craft that's not obviously aerodynamically designed, particularly at supersonic speeds.
@@danielh3179 Mundane aerodynamic forces are for vessels that cannot manipulate the curvature of spacetime at will. But if you prefer, They can also create an energy shield around her that has an optimal aerodynamic shape. I leave both options for you so you can choose the one you like the most
a small tidbit about the 104 that isn't widely known...one reason Lockheed was able to get the U2 designed and manufactured and flying so quickly is they basically just took a 104, lengthened the fuselage, repowered it and slapped some really long thin wings on it and whalla, you had a U2.
1:06 lol that's like my dad on the riding lawnmower after a few drinks on a hot day, you might get a mowed lawn or a couple of crop circles in the yard😆👍🇩🇰💞🇺🇸
I've never yet thought that the CGI "enhanced" TOS versions were better, or even as good, as TOS with its original effects and visuals. It just doesn't fit right.
Some of the killjoys forget that the Big E would have a magnetic field around it in the form of the Deflector Field. As for the Starfighter; that was one of the best Century Series fighters ever built, but it needed an Fighter Pilot to handle it. In this period in history, the TAC (Tactical Air Command) would have been using F-102 or -106 Flying Coffins as interceptors, however, as most of the 104's were on other missions or for Export. Most of the front-line Phantoms were in Indochina or on Carrier Duty, if memory serves, during the mid-Sixties. A Phantom could withstand the Big E's deflector shields without breaking a sweat, I'm here to tell you.
Back in the at Edwards Air Force Base and 60s we had aircraft armed with nuclear missiles on them they were called hot Birds, and you needed special permission to launch them
@@Dra741 I don't think the F-104 ever carried the Genie nuclear rocket, and I'm sure it never carried the Nuclear Falcon, but certainly many of its contemporaries did, maybe Spock just didn't know for sure what kind of jet it was. If that were an F-106 the USAF may have scored a kill on a Starfleet starship.
Not even close. The only rocket at the time that was nuclear equipped was the AIR-2 GENIE, a fat tub of nothing but a bomb with wings and a solid motor. The fuse was a simple timer; there was no PAL (Permissive Action Link) safety system for the weapon, it was fire then RUN. They played with fitting it to the Starfighter, using a trapeze rig, similar to what the F-102/106 had, but nothing came of it.
Oxnard Air Force Base, now Camarillo Airport. I just went to the airshow, no F-104s flew though. It's just off the 101, so I can see why it appealed as a filming location.
that scene with the starfighter 0:30 wasn't taken in the US or was it? with the church in the background it looks more like it was taken in Germany. Perhaps it was in Nörvenich with the church in Alt-Oberbolheim?
Notice the jet makes the whooshing sound atmospheric resistance would cause. But the Enterprise makes no such sound. Yet in the opening theme the Enterprise famously "whooshes" even though it's not in any atmosphere. That may have been an NBC idea to give the opening theme more popular culture pizazz.
The West German Air Force attempted to employ the F104 as a low level, slow speed ground attack aircraft, something it was designed for, hence an unusual number of crashes.
I always wondered how the Enterprise was able to enter the atmosphere without burning up! We see it burning up when it hit the atmosphere in ‘The search for Spock’. Also in the TOS episode ‘Naked Time’ the Enterprise was dangerously close to burning up as it’s engines were off and she was falling from orbit?
Assuming impulse engines are magical, Enterprise would just cancel most of its orbital velocity and gently descend into the atmosphere, again using impulse engines to prevent excessive build up of speed due to gravity. Therefore it would not have sufficient kinetic energy to generate dangerous re-entry heating.
Search for Spock the ship had destructed it had no directional control. In naked time it has no impulse power same problem. Under power the enterprise can enter the atmosphere safely.
I'm going to take a guess at the f-106 was still hypothetically classified material so they wouldn't show it on a TV show and said they would show an older aircraft that probably already been exported to NATO allies.
Or, they didn't have stock footage of the 106s OR they just thought the 104 was far cooler or the prop guy had an F-104 ready to shoot. Still like the 104 in the shot. @@armyboy0579
Wished someone would get better stock footage of the 104 ...... the low level off the runway was of the prototype doing passes, not a scramble ...... with CGI of 2021 and footage, this could be reimagined and made AWSOME !!!!!!
it wasn't until later in trek that they manage point to point beaming without landing on a transporter pad first. And at first they called it "intra-ship beaming."
F104 wasn't a great fighter Still with a top speed over Mach 2, does that mean a Enterprise can do supersonic in atmosphere? If so a 300 meter vessel would create a supersonic wake so bad it'll shatter the hearing of those down below
@@General_Flores No, it was a fighter. Kelly Johnson developed it to be a light weight, inexpensive dayfighter It is the late 50s version of the early F16. Long on performance, short on features, cheap, and easy to obtain in large numbers. Johnson sat a bunch of top scoring korean war F86 pilots and asked them "what do you need to beat the new mig types that will follow on the Mig 15" (what a novel concept... ask the guys that will actually USE the damned thing what they want!) Superior Speed, acceleration, and climb rate was the resounding answer. Thus the 104 was born - the energy fighter to rule all energy fighters. Yes, it could turn, provided it kept its speed up - it could turn better than the migs at higher air speeds, And nothing in the air at the time could keep up with it in a climb. It could maintain supersonic speed in a climb, and was the first production fighter in the world to fly mach 2 in level flight. Those attributes made it a pretty good short range interceptor - but its armament wasn't really suited for it. A couple sidewinders and an M61 cannon were originally its optimum load out. That's not a bomber killing setup... that's a 1950s air dominance setup. Attempts to make it into a multirole fighter is wat earned it its bad reputation for a pilot killer. The simple lightweight american "C" model, while tricky on takeoff and landing was not as unforgiving as the heavier german "G" models. Or the CA-104s that Canada outfitted for nuclear strike.
Actually the F-104 was a great fighter and a fine fighter bomber. Outside of the German Luftwaffe it's safety record was on par with other such aircraft of its time. The Germans had issues with it because of poor pilot training and low altitude missions flown in poor weather. The J79 engine of the F-104 was also new at the time and created most of the issues the aircraft had early on.
Anyone know what squadron and base this was? Mint USAF Footage F104 Looks cool taxiing with the air brakes deployed. Looks like on deck there might be a few F100S or F105'S as well in the back ground? Be cool to know what aircraft were assigned to that base alongside the starfighters...
My favorite episode. I always got pumped seeing that jet at the start. It was magic thinking they were in my time period. I was a big 12 inch G.I. Joe fan & mine was the action pilot. What a great Christmas that was.
I see you're also a fan of my favorite sci-fi film, Dan.
Did you get the GI Joe with the Mercury Capsule? I had over of those. Hot Wheels Fat Track too.
@@patrickvanrinsvelt4466 I had the GI Joe with the Mercury capsule. It was excellent.
OMG I had the same Gi Joe pilot wearing basically the same uniform! I would get him out reenact the scenes when this was on TV!
I was 9 and got a 3" refracting telescope that Christmas. Everything was possible. Even breaking the cosmic speed limit and a schism in Time itself. Aw take me back. I'm ready. Lets all go back
This has gotta be the best Star trek opening ever....simply awesome. 👍👍
People watching it back in the day, probably thought they had the wrong channel... "Where the HELL is Star Trek?"😆
@@GeneralGeorgeS.PattonJr. I was going to post that.. As a kid this opening really confused me but I thought it was cool
Of all of the episodes and of all of the series and ST films ever made this was the one that hooked me on Star Trek. To this day, this is still my favorite episode, bar none.
Better than “Journey to Babel”?
This was one of my Favourite Episodes as a kidd , also the Saturn five Episode as well, cannot beat the original series
The tractor beam is breaking it up!!
I havnae turned it on yet Captain.
F104 widowmaker in action.
Yep... didn't they determine that the wings were too stubby and the engines too powerful that rendered the air frame very unstable in flight. It killed so many pilots.
Come to think of it, it's a good think he didn't see the top of the saucer section and report that he could read "USS Enterprise"
They will probably assume it's some commie weapon
"What the Hell is an aircraft carrier doing up HERE?!!"
Some sweet stock footage of the F104. Back then it was _the_ Bad Ass fighter.
Nofer Trunions Yeah but tough to fly, I believe that it was tagged with the nickname ”Widow Maker” by some pilots.
@@cameraman655 Absolutely, did you know it was the basis for the U2? Kelly Johnson figured, "Hey, I could put glider wings on this and..." I believe a privately owned F104 set a sealevel speed record (those are very difficult, fighters can only reach their max speed at altitude.) I think the F15 was something like Mach 1.25 @ sealevel (or something like that.) I don't know what project it was (could hve been the U2) but KJ was supposed to scrap all the tooling for some fighter L manufactured but he decided to save it and ended up using it. Don't remember any other details on that one.
Nofer Trunions Yep, I am a huge fan of Kelly's flying wonders.
It served several nations including Germany and Japan.
Read the combat reports from India v Pakistan 1965. It was a dead loss.
I was friends witth a Lockheed test pilot for the F104. He told me some great stories about it. He went on to be an SR71 test pilot. He said he was selected to fly the Blackbird because he had more time in the F104 than anyone else, and that anyone that could fly the F104 could fly the Blackbird.
Makes sense as both were very unforgiving jets
I never heard that either Tony or Fish ever flew the Blackbird. Who are you talking about?
He was definitely safer in the SR-71 than in the F-104....
How appropriate Starfighter meets Star trek, 👍😁
Especially if you think at all those UFO -tales :)
The strap on Capt. Christopher's oxygen mask is the same type of strap used by Buzz Aldrin when he wore his Omega Speedmaster as the first person to ever wear a watch on the Lunar Surface. Neil Armstrong kept his Speedmaster hanging on the LM so he could time the creators as landmarks for timing his flight path. Both were .321 cal Omega Speedmasters. The strap was extra long so that it could be wrapped around the outside of his spacesuit. I'm an Apollo 11 nurd and a Speedmaster owner of a pre-lunar model .861 cal purchased in 1969 before the July landing. The .321 cal was just changed over in Oct. 1968 to the newer .861 cal model. The .321s are hard to come by but the 861s had a higher beat frequency from 18 to 21 kz. But Omega very recently started to remake the .321 cal. with a Platinum case. It's presently selling for about $9.800. U.S. as of Aug. 2019. For anybody who cares. The .861 was redesigned from the .321 Lemania movement used in the Patek Philippe watches back in the day. Although the .321 was more difficult to make, the .861 was easier to produce and was more accurate. But a true Omega Moonwatch was the .321 cal Lemonia movement, not the .861 which was later adapted by NASA for subsequent moon missions. So, the .861 was still considered an original moonwatch. Mine is now 50 years old and it still works. Yes, I had it "tuned up" in 1990 for $300 U.S. Omega gave me a newer watchband and new pushers and rubber seals. But they also returned the original parts to me except the original watch band. Nobody, not even Omega back in the 80s knew the Speedmaster would become such an iconic watch.
I have a relative who got one when he was in the Navy in the mid 60s before Apollo 11 landed. He paid like 75 bucks for it. Still has it, still works fine. It's been serviced two or three times since then. When you got yours serviced did they freshen up the lume paint? After 50+ years it's pretty faded and only glows for a few minutes after being in the sun.
Possibly the dullest comment I've ever seen on RUclips 🤣
I’ve got two of them!
@@jimmytgoose476
I found it interesting !
This would have been Offutt AFB, Nebraska, the former home of SAC (Strategic Air Command - nukes). At the time, very authentic.
I think the radar operators would be more than confused to see an object of the size of a battleship, flying around in the air zone, I think they would believe the radar is broken.
Scene is very futuristic in how conventional aircraft try I.D. and pursue UFO's except alien response sequence would not be so slow to identify- but instantaneous. Documented cases show pursuit plane is either vaporized, disappears, or crashes.
Documented cases show the pursuit plane capturing the UAP on video for a while, then being unable to keep up with it, with no hostile action by the UAP.
Radar in the 60s did not report the size of objects.
@@Quazmodic Well but still it would look like a big bloop in the screen, perhaps?
@@animeturnMMD No
The first airing of this episode, I thought " what happened to my show?" Thinking the tv station substituted a military show. Upon seeing the Enterprise, it was WOW! I didn't know much of any "Vulcan details" about aeronautics, tractor beams, transportors then.
Given that the pace of producing a weekly US TV series in the 60s was very quick, it was impressive that Star Trek managed to do so well in their use of specific stock footage, such as all the filmed F-104 shots in this episode and all the Saturn V shots used in Assignment Earth.
The staff paid attention to such details. Unlike some other shows. I recall seeing a sequence in one Six Million $ Man episode where Steve was taking off, flying and landing in a fighter jet, and no less than three very different looking planes were shown.
That was my thought exactly! I was expecting anything Star Trek, and was slightly disappointed when I saw the f-104... But hey I like planes too so I watched and OMG my two favorite subjects put together the same show!
Absolutely right! I was wondering where Star Trek went to...and then I first heard the theme music and saw the Enterprise...very nicely done opening.
I thought the very same thing in 1974! Star Trek aired every afternoon at 3 or 4 o'clock on one of the local stations that summer. I nearly turned off the set to go back outside for some more bike riding when I heard the first strains of "Star Trek" music at 0:35.
How to own a Starfighter:
Buy a piece of land, and wait...
The type of nuclear yield available to a F-104 of the time would be 1.5 kilotons for the nuclear-tipped AIR-2A Genie, an unguided rocket with a range of almost 10 km.
The fighter could also carry unguided gravity bombs which could range in yield from 70 kilotons to 1.45 megatons.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter
@reverse thrust Cheers for the correction. I must have skimmed through the article or misread it at the time I posted. Fixed the post :)
The F-104 was tested with the Genie but never made operational with it.
Congratulations. You can Google.
@@dogsbd Respectfully, I disagree regarding the "operational" aspect of your statement. My understanding from a pilot with over 5,000 hours in the 104 is that a single limited yeild nuke could be mounted under the center hard point. Whether it was and to what extent during training is classified, so he wouldn't divulge that information, but he was stationed at Ramstein AFB in the mid-1970s at the time.
@@TimmyBoyAZ The F-104 was operational with free fall nuclear bombs but I was referencing the Genie nuclear air to air missile in my statement.
It's fun that the F-104 just happened to be called the Starfighter.
Behold the legendary lawn dart.
“… type 31 interceptor… “
Aka the *widowmaker.*
Inspired, loosely, by the F104….
@razorburn645 aka the flying pencil
Fondly called the "Missile with a man in it". At the time this episode was made I had one I built hanging from my bedroom ceiling. Coolest jet I ever saw at the time. It would be 1 or 2 more years before I discovered the insane SR-71.
Widowmaker was its other name
OMG i love those F104 starfighters, I have a whole dvd about them which were retired in 1984
One of my favorite episodes! When I was young and saw this on TV, I had a Gi Joe pilot wearing the same uniform! I would get him out and reenact this scene when this was on! 😂
The shot of the Enterprise coming up through the clouds @1:47 has been the wallpaper on my laptop for years.
Good taste.
I love the way Mr. Spock says "interceptor."
The SENsors have picked up an… interCEPtor. Love the Nimoy phrasing!
Gotta be one of the most beautiful jet aircraft ever built!
And a very dangerous aircraft to fly. Many pilots died flying the F-104
@@haroldhumerickhouse7904 It was mostly a matter of training. Most early jets were very dangerous to fly by modern standards due to having unusual quirks. That's what happens when you're on the bleeding edge of technology and in experimental territory. Once they figured out how to properly train for the F-104, and installed a better ejection system, the accident and fatality rate dropped dramatically. The F-104 was an excellent aircraft for its role and time; you just can't compare it to stuff that came later after they fully figured out what they were doing.
widowmaker, I saw these aup close in 1972@@haroldhumerickhouse7904
@@haroldhumerickhouse7904 Many beautiful things are also dangerous. The F-104 was a bleeding edge, ground breaking, high performance fighter, it held speed, altitude, and time to climb records all at once, That said, the F-104 had a better safety record than the F-84 that preceded it. Flying jets was a hazardous profession back then.
They were terrifying to pilot. Dangerous widowmakers but all fighters of that era were
I understand these aircraft were a nightmare but they sure did look cool as hell.
They were great for what they were designed to do. Just tech at that time was moving so fast they really didn't have time to make a name for themselves.
@@1337penguinmanIt's rather shocking how fast we went through new planes back then. We went from the Gloster Meteor in 1944 to F8 Crusaders and F4 Phantoms II in 1957/58. That's less time than my country has had it's F18 fleet.
Always loved seeing the Enterprise in this episode flying through the blue sky and clouds
The Enterprise, flying in modern earth 🌎.
The voice speaking in the beginning of this segment on the radio talking to "Bluejay 4" is the same actor who played the senior security guard who questioned Capt. Kirk after he and Sulu beamed down to the air force base and were arrested by the air force security team.
I initially thought this would be a mock battle between the air force and CVN-65, my first ship in the Navy, so it was pretty amusing to see the the Star Trek ship come out of the clouds.
I just randomly got this video recommended thinking the same thing or if it was Star Trek.
F-104 Star Fighter a rocket with stubby wings.
Also referred to as "the missile with a man in it", if I recall.
As for rocket power, check out the NF-104A:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A
@@bobblum5973 Also called "The Widow Maker"
Two squadrons sent to Vietnam, 14 planes lost in action, zero kills
"Sir, I don't understand how that crazy thing can even fly with that ridiculous, outlandish otherworldly layout and almost non-existent wings" "Soldier now is not the time to criticize the F-104 program, we have a UFO to catch"
I always loved this music like you're running out of time..How apt
when this episode first aired our power went out and i missed it and i did not see it for about twenty years
Jerry Solomon: Obviously the work of ALIENS!
or time travelers
Jerry Solomon I kept missing reruns of Tholian Web
Jerry Solomon damn dude that was f***** up but you know a lot of stations all we did a reap are of shows like on the weekends
Do you mean your power was off for 20 years? Running windmills are ya?
Two of my favorite aircraft in one show!
Another good one is when they jack with a saturn 5 right before launch. Good times, good times.
yeah the one with Gary 7
Lembrei da parte da Jornada nas Estrelas, assisti esta parte qd tinha 8 anos de idade em 1978.Ulisses de Campinas São Paulo.
Although the F-104 was know as "The widow maker" The Spanish Air Force (Ejercito del Aire) operated 21 F-104s for seven years (1965-1972) without a single loss.
The F104 was designed by Kelly Johnson and the skunk works to be deployed as a high speed high altitude interceptor. The West German Air Force used the plane as a low altitude low speed ground attack weapon, something it was never designed for. This resulted in an unusual high number of crashes.
@@billsanders5067 "low altitude low speed ground attack weapon" a CFIT weapon, you say? How intriguing.
@@billsanders5067 You know your stuff! In the Luftwaffe, non-combat missions, 269 crashes and 116 pilots killed. Erich Hartmann, the highest scoring Ace of WW II was also Chief of the Luftwaffe at the time. He was totally against the aircraft and there were allegations of some kind of bribes known as the "Lockeed Scandal."
He was retired early in 1970.
😂 My Dad used to work on those planes when he was in the Air Force. He was so good he even had a plane named after him.
This actually happened in 2004 off the coast of California when 2 F-18 fighter jets chased after a "Flying Tic-Tac".
Truth is stranger than fiction.
That's because a Cabal runs the world. Hollywood is apart of it and anything they show you in movies and TV shows, they can already do. Unfortunately it's been hidden in secret black budget programs. Ben Rich from Lockheed Martin said back in 1993. "We have the technology to take ET home."
@@sharko121 Agree with the global cabal and Hollywood as their instrument of mind control.
Disagree that humans could build anything remotely similar to Flying Tic-Tacs.
Lol.... the government couldn’t even keep Watergate under wraps or affect a regime change in a third world nation without it becoming a decades long quagmire and you think there is a global cabal?
I have ocean front property in Arizona you might be interested in.
@@Bartonovich52 time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
Yes I do, and this Scandal is going to make Watergate look like ginger beer.
@@Bartonovich52 They managed to keep the SR-71 spy plane secret for 30 years.
And most people today STILL does not know the real reason why the U.S. got involved in Vietnam.
How many decades has it been?
For what its worth that is some of the best special effects for its time.
It's not of its time; this is from 2006 ;) They updated footage to take advantage of modern (at the time) techniques.
I never got to see that episode when I was very young I’d love to watch this in full
Kirk could have beamed the pilot to the ground and drag the Stafighter to low earth orbit and let it burn up on re-entry. But, then the episode would have only lasted 10 minutes.
Maybe when the Enterprise was flung back in time, might've knocked the transporters off line.
@@rcmorales9014 - So how did they beam the pilot onboard?
@@Fazzel Scotty is a miracle worker.
Then you wouldn't have much of an episode
From the shot of the Enterprise below clouds at 2:46, one could assume that the altitude was below 15,000 to 20,000 feet. It would be interesting to hear them explain how the Enterprise was able to achieve the necessary aerodynamics for flying in Earth's atmosphere.
If you can bend the space-time to travel several times faster than light, at warp speed, and you can create artificial gravity on your decks, i think you can offset the Earth gravity
It's all about doing "little alterations" in the Riemann's Tensor
@@Trompicavalas The issue isn't manipulating Einstein's general theory. The issue is dealing with mundane forces like wind resistance, lift, and drag for a huge craft that's not obviously aerodynamically designed, particularly at supersonic speeds.
@@danielh3179 Mundane aerodynamic forces are for vessels that cannot manipulate the curvature of spacetime at will. But if you prefer, They can also create an energy shield around her that has an optimal aerodynamic shape.
I leave both options for you so you can choose the one you like the most
Easy to explain really "Science Fiction"
It’s got warp engines, jackass!
It was called the Starfighter, which is maybe why the writers chose it? I prefer the original special effects, but that's another matter.
The man in a missile.
104 was an amazing aircraft.
Actually very fast but not very stable.
One of my faourite episodes!!! Many thanks for sharing!!! :-)
Mitico cacciatore di stelle con il suo j 79!
To me still one of the best STAR TREK episodes ever done.
Man, that was great!🦇
a small tidbit about the 104 that isn't widely known...one reason Lockheed was able to get the U2 designed and manufactured and flying so quickly is they basically just took a 104, lengthened the fuselage, repowered it and slapped some really long thin wings on it and whalla, you had a U2.
*Voilà.
1:06 lol that's like my dad on the riding lawnmower after a few drinks on a hot day, you might get a mowed lawn or a couple of crop circles in the yard😆👍🇩🇰💞🇺🇸
AHAHAHAHA!! That was epic!! Or my Mom would yell because her flowers were "trimmed!"
I've never yet thought that the CGI "enhanced" TOS versions were better, or even as good, as TOS with its original effects and visuals. It just doesn't fit right.
Fact: Actor who plays the F104 pilot was on Laugh In
I prefer the original version of this clip. It looked more realistic.
Sweet F-104 vs Enterprise
Amazing! You almost can't see the strings 😆
they used wires
Some of the killjoys forget that the Big E would have a magnetic field around it in the form of the Deflector Field. As for the Starfighter; that was one of the best Century Series fighters ever built, but it needed an Fighter Pilot to handle it. In this period in history, the TAC (Tactical Air Command) would have been using F-102 or -106 Flying Coffins as interceptors, however, as most of the 104's were on other missions or for Export. Most of the front-line Phantoms were in Indochina or on Carrier Duty, if memory serves, during the mid-Sixties. A Phantom could withstand the Big E's deflector shields without breaking a sweat, I'm here to tell you.
GREAT special effects for the time. Still holds up.
The heyday of TAC, when the US was churning out all kinds of jet aircraft!
And in the fifties and sixties Pilots were encountering these things and in 1952 they actually over flu Washington
I like it when Spock says yes it's carrying a nuclear missile which could cause some damage to the ship
Back in the at Edwards Air Force Base and 60s we had aircraft armed with nuclear missiles on them they were called hot Birds, and you needed special permission to launch them
@@Dra741 I don't think the F-104 ever carried the Genie nuclear rocket, and I'm sure it never carried the Nuclear Falcon, but certainly many of its contemporaries did, maybe Spock just didn't know for sure what kind of jet it was. If that were an F-106 the USAF may have scored a kill on a Starfleet starship.
Spock, looks seriously concerned the jet has missiles, possibly nuclear. Kirk, ahh screw them. Get me Scotty...
Not even close. The only rocket at the time that was nuclear equipped was the AIR-2 GENIE, a fat tub of nothing but a bomb with wings and a solid motor. The fuse was a simple timer; there was no PAL (Permissive Action Link) safety system for the weapon, it was fire then RUN.
They played with fitting it to the Starfighter, using a trapeze rig, similar to what the F-102/106 had, but nothing came of it.
@@Nighthawke70 Great information. Thanks!
@@Nighthawke70 ...even so, the Genie could damage the Enterprise.
@@Nighthawke70 Also there was the AIM-26 Nuclear Falcon, which was not carried by the F-104.
Oxnard Air Force Base, now Camarillo Airport. I just went to the airshow, no F-104s flew though. It's just off the 101, so I can see why it appealed as a filming location.
The 104 would definately out climb the Enterprise , think the Enterprise has the 104 in the turn
though ;)
Sulu, can't you keep this ship steady? Come on, man!
Oh Captain, stop being a Hideous Little B!tch!!
The F-104 known as the widow maker.
only in germany. Their variant was awful :(
A faulty design but it's fast
flying coffin
The F-104 was a high altitude interceptor that could touch the edge of space....almost.
This also you see the enterprise in the sky for the first time
The only time I'd be worried about getting beamed up is when taking a big dump.
😆😆😆
1:47 Wow, love that part.
Good thing he wasn't flying a P-39. Enterprise wouldn't stand a chance.
Spock should have said, 'It is an F104, colloquially identified as the Starfighter.'
This would have been Offutt AFB, Nebraska, the former home of SAC (Strategic Air Command - nukes). At the time, very authentic.
Captain Sir; something’s klingin’ onto the outer hull. Don’t daft yeoman, that’d b a foolish ... enterprise🍳
Wouldn't the Enterprise's shields protect it from an attack by the F-104?
Enterprise was damaged from a previous incident.
that scene with the starfighter 0:30 wasn't taken in the US or was it? with the church in the background it looks more like it was taken in Germany. Perhaps it was in Nörvenich with the church in Alt-Oberbolheim?
Me too! I loved both those episodes two!
Notice the jet makes the whooshing sound atmospheric resistance would cause. But the Enterprise makes no such sound. Yet in the opening theme the Enterprise famously "whooshes" even though it's not in any atmosphere. That may have been an NBC idea to give the opening theme more popular culture pizazz.
Followed a really bright light going up the Colombia river followed it 5 miles then it just disappeared not a trace anywhere
One of my favorite episodes
I wonder if that is why Germany lost so many F-104's ?
Chad Snow because the F-104 is terrible
They tried using it for something completely different than what it was designed to do.
@@Cortana_ice_fox I recall it was used as a tactical nuclear bomber. The mission assignment couldn't be more inappropriate.
Mike Cimerian no it was high altitude and speed interceptor of soviet bombers
Germany and Canada used theirs for nuclear tactical strike aircraft - low level, 450-plus knots, bad weather.
Do the math.
I was in NATO when F-104s were deployed in Germany. The joke was, "How do you get and F-104? Just buy an acre of land and wait."
The West German Air Force attempted to employ the F104 as a low level, slow speed ground attack aircraft, something it was designed for, hence an unusual number of crashes.
Didn't they literally put them on top of giant rocket boosters to get them airborne without a runway?
@@armyboy0579Are you
@armyboy0579 No. You maybe referring to jet assisted take off systems (aka JETO). These were rocketes attacked to each side of the aircra
@@billsanders5067 ruclips.net/video/75qnxMd1YSY/видео.htmlsi=Bhyq5QGy4Imlzuio
I always wondered how the Enterprise was able to enter the atmosphere without burning up! We see it burning up when it hit the atmosphere in ‘The search for Spock’. Also in the TOS episode ‘Naked Time’ the Enterprise was dangerously close to burning up as it’s engines were off and she was falling from orbit?
Skimming, bro.
Assuming impulse engines are magical, Enterprise would just cancel most of its orbital velocity and gently descend into the atmosphere, again using impulse engines to prevent excessive build up of speed due to gravity. Therefore it would not have sufficient kinetic energy to generate dangerous re-entry heating.
@@throwback19841 why didn’t I think of that. May faith in the Star Trek universe has been restored!
@@throwback19841 That would be the job of the reaction controle thrusters not the impulse engines.
Search for Spock the ship had destructed it had no directional control. In naked time it has no impulse power same problem. Under power the enterprise can enter the atmosphere safely.
The funny thing is they actually were an F-106 base. No F-104s during that period.
During what period ? The period when a 23rd century star ship appeared out of nowhere ? Or a different one ?
I'm going to take a guess at the f-106 was still hypothetically classified material so they wouldn't show it on a TV show and said they would show an older aircraft that probably already been exported to NATO allies.
Or, they didn't have stock footage of the 106s OR they just thought the 104 was far cooler or the prop guy had an F-104 ready to shoot. Still like the 104 in the shot. @@armyboy0579
Aircraft is to fragile, Kirk as Top Gun : lets transport the dude.
I expect study on F-104 vs CVN-6 but this is a nice suprise
The Zipper (Widow Maker, Phallus Tube), had no chance against Big E.
This and Gary 7 were my two favorites....
Great graphics love this episode
Obviously, that fighter pilot was NOT a Star Trek fan, else he would have immediately recognized the Enterprise!
Maybe this took place in 1965. (Star Trek first aired in 1966) So he wouldn't know anything about Star Trek yet.
A Starfighter chases a Starship.
Lockheed F-104, the original Starfighter!
I remember this episode fondly.
Wished someone would get better stock footage of the 104 ...... the low level off the runway was of the prototype doing passes, not a scramble ...... with CGI of 2021 and footage, this could be reimagined and made AWSOME !!!!!!
Why didn’t they just beam the pilot back to the surface (to his base?)? Not much of a story there I guess-would have been a short episode.
it wasn't until later in trek that they manage point to point beaming without landing on a transporter pad first. And at first they called it "intra-ship beaming."
Skunk Works versus Star Fleet.
Tasic blue vs.oxcar.maybee take care...Gruß..
F104 wasn't a great fighter
Still with a top speed over Mach 2, does that mean a Enterprise can do supersonic in atmosphere? If so a 300 meter vessel would create a supersonic wake so bad it'll shatter the hearing of those down below
Perhaps because it... wasn't a fighter? It was an interceptor.
@@General_Flores
No, it was a fighter.
Kelly Johnson developed it to be a light weight, inexpensive dayfighter
It is the late 50s version of the early F16.
Long on performance, short on features, cheap, and easy to obtain in large numbers.
Johnson sat a bunch of top scoring korean war F86 pilots and asked them "what do you need to beat the new mig types that will follow on the Mig 15" (what a novel concept... ask the guys that will actually USE the damned thing what they want!)
Superior Speed, acceleration, and climb rate was the resounding answer.
Thus the 104 was born - the energy fighter to rule all energy fighters.
Yes, it could turn, provided it kept its speed up - it could turn better than the migs at higher air speeds,
And nothing in the air at the time could keep up with it in a climb.
It could maintain supersonic speed in a climb, and was the first production fighter in the world to fly mach 2 in level flight.
Those attributes made it a pretty good short range interceptor - but its armament wasn't really suited for it.
A couple sidewinders and an M61 cannon were originally its optimum load out. That's not a bomber killing setup... that's a 1950s air dominance setup.
Attempts to make it into a multirole fighter is wat earned it its bad reputation for a pilot killer. The simple lightweight american "C" model, while tricky on takeoff and landing was not as unforgiving as the heavier german "G" models. Or the CA-104s that Canada outfitted for nuclear strike.
Actually the F-104 was a great fighter and a fine fighter bomber. Outside of the German Luftwaffe it's safety record was on par with other such aircraft of its time. The Germans had issues with it because of poor pilot training and low altitude missions flown in poor weather. The J79 engine of the F-104 was also new at the time and created most of the issues the aircraft had early on.
A great fighter ? Really ?
Man, were those episodes fun!
The Enterprise having trouble with crosswinds or what!
Anyone know what squadron and base this was? Mint USAF Footage F104 Looks cool taxiing
with the air brakes deployed. Looks like on deck there might be a few F100S or F105'S as well in the back ground? Be cool to know what aircraft were assigned to that base alongside the starfighters...
I've seen cigar shaped UFOs and saw smaller objects going to and from it me and my wife along time ago in the late 70s
I Dream of Jeannie meets Star Trek
Teri Garr was in a episode
F-104 Starfighter sometimes known as the Widowmaker or the Lawndart.
A crashing one isnt out of the ordinary.
Good thing they erased his memory otherwise those ancient astronaut theorists would never have gotten on Sci FI Channel.
They didn't so much erase his memory as deposit him back in his plane before anything happened.
Great, now I have to watch the whole episode. 🤣👍
The F-104 a very deadly aircraft.
Killed 306 of its own pilots & one XB-70.
If it managed to destroy a supersonic bomber, It must be a pretty good interceptor
@@armyboy0579 Crash into any plane & take the tail off it's coming down.
That was the 104's sole air to air kill.
The effects were good for that time
This is the remastered version with updated vfx,
@@stevemortl original is better
I wonder if this episode was inspired by the incident with the P-51 that occurred some years earlier.