The F-104C Starfighter is a real symbol of ‘50s and ‘60s aviation. It looks fast. It looks aggressive. It just exudes air superiority. And yet, when the US really needed to establish that superiority over the jungles of Vietnam it was the F-4 Phantom that got the call.

When the results of Project Featherduster were made public in the late 1990s some aviation enthusiasts and genuine experts took its findings as evidence that the Tactical Air Command had made the wrong decision about which aeroplane to bring off its figurative bench to replace the F-100 Super Sabre as MIGCAP.

In this video I look into this possibility in some detail. I hope you enjoy the alternative history. If so, please let me know in the comments. I have a few other similar ideas but I’m definitely still calibrating what others find interesting!


Notes:

Statistics on weapon and aircraft performance during Rolling Thunder are from Clashes: Air Combat Over North Vietnam, by Marshall L Michel. Sadly out of print, but it is occasionally available second hand on eBay

Source for Grindstone upgrade: http://www.916-starfighter.de/F-104_U...

Suggestion that the catamaran launcher for Sidewinder was unpopular: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/i...

F-4 turn rate discussion and debate between experts: https://groups.google.com/g/rec.aviat...