Those things killed almost as many Germans as the 8th Air Force. Real pretty, too.
The Bundeswehr had 916 units, of which one third crashed and killed 116 pilots (without active combat of course). Holy fucking shit.
Kind of casts a pall over seaons 6, episode 12 of MST3K - The Starfighters
Also dangerous to ground crew:
“The front edge of the wing, with a radius of 0.00016 inch, was so sharp that the leading edge needed a protective cover when the jet was on the ground. “
Wow! WTF? Did they sharpen it with a wet stone or something?
This looks like the kind of jet you’d get if you told the designer to make you the most jet looking jet they can think of.
It think it still holds the sea level speed record.
I, too, looked up this plane when I saw it mentioned in another thread.
I’ve always loved the Starfighter, but the thread was definitely a trigger for me to search out a suitable historical pic.