I like watching the F-104 at Westhampton AFB growing up, it was noisy, but it could move. Your right, it was the biggest engine available at the time strapped to a metal tube and some stubby wings, there wasn't a plane in the world who could keep up with it at the time. Also read that it was very hard to control.hehehe That kind of take off is called an "unlimited t/o". Hubby experienced one when he wasvisiting his Dad's cousin who was an aircraft mechanic and pilot. The plane he was in was a CF-104 Starfighter. People nicknamed it the manned rocket because it could do about 2.5 mach. It weighed about 10 tons, had a thrust of about 16,000 lbf, was built like a needle so it's drag was quite a bit less than 5 sq feet. Rate of climb was almost 50,000 feet per minute and its ceiling was about 50,000 ft. It wasn't very manouverable, having a long fuselage and relatively stubby little wings but it was only limited to about 2.5 mach because of airframe and something to do with engine temperature.
It matched the latest F-18s on rate of climb. Not bad for a plane that started out in late 50s andpeople finally quit using modified versions in 2004.
