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
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.
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.
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.
@@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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
@@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.
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.
"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 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.
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.
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?
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😆👍🇩🇰💞🇺🇸
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 wondered about this from the first time I saw this episode. How did the pilot explain how he got out of the plane? After he was beamed out the plane would have crashed with the ejection seat still inside. Then he sows up without a scratch?
No explanation would be asked for or allowed, CIA spooks would simply say "the pilot was stoned drunk and hallucinating wildly" as they expertly operated the complex fighter planes and or cameras that showed what they saw was really there. We find in the books on Project Blue Book that it made some Generals of The Greatest Generation "purple faced with rage" when CIA desk pilots/dweebs/secret keepers willing to lie and destroy any person's life, at any cost, to protect their secrets... said this in official briefings.
You are missing the point at mach 2.3 - no matter what pilots saw or were crashed by the gov. and military had the same story - to keep the biggest secret of all time and all Earth Humans in a Dark Age of ignorance.
Yes... and I also know it was based on some all too true stories, such as the p-51 pilot ordered to close on a visiting space craft, only to be shot down and his wrecked plane recovered (perhaps with no body in it). I think was over Ohio just after WW2 - and newspaper reports said "Pilot Crashes While Trying to reach the Planet Venus". SO great and insult to the greatest generation, who knew the "flying saucers" were real. See when one starts with the knowing these things are real, and as the USAF said "pure hallucinations are extremely rare" - then one can go on to finding out what they are, how they come to our planet, and WHY. Some are good and some are unspeakably bad, doing unspeakably bad things to people's butts,{mine still hurts form the infections} and so "They" must be kept super secret... since they do unspeakable things we must never speak of them on pain of death.
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
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.
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
This was one of my Favourite Episodes as a kidd , also the Saturn five Episode as well, cannot beat the original series
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?!!"
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”?
How appropriate Starfighter meets Star trek, 👍😁
Especially if you think at all those UFO -tales :)
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....
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.
How to own a Starfighter:
Buy a piece of land, and wait...
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
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
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.
OMG i love those F104 starfighters, I have a whole dvd about them which were retired in 1984
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 TH-cam 🤣
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 love the way Mr. Spock says "interceptor."
The SENsors have picked up an… interCEPtor. Love the Nimoy phrasing!
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 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.
The shot of the Enterprise coming up through the clouds @1:47 has been the wallpaper on my laptop for years.
Good taste.
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.
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
Always loved seeing the Enterprise in this episode flying through the blue sky and clouds
The Enterprise, flying in modern earth 🌎.
I always loved this music like you're running out of time..How apt
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.
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"
Two of my favorite aircraft in one show!
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.
One of my faourite episodes!!! Many thanks for sharing!!! :-)
Another good one is when they jack with a saturn 5 right before launch. Good times, good times.
yeah the one with Gary 7
😂 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.
Lembrei da parte da Jornada nas Estrelas, assisti esta parte qd tinha 8 anos de idade em 1978.Ulisses de Campinas São Paulo.
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
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.
Man, that was great!🦇
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?
The man in a missile.
104 was an amazing aircraft.
Actually very fast but not very stable.
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?
It was called the Starfighter, which is maybe why the writers chose it? I prefer the original special effects, but that's another matter.
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
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?
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.
Mitico cacciatore di stelle con il suo j 79!
Fact: Actor who plays the F104 pilot was on Laugh In
Me too! I loved both those episodes two!
I prefer the original version of this clip. It looked more realistic.
Man, were those episodes fun!
Spock should have said, 'It is an F104, colloquially identified as the Starfighter.'
Great episode
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!"
Sweet F-104 vs Enterprise
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!
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.
To me still one of the best STAR TREK episodes ever done.
Amazing! You almost can't see the strings 😆
they used wires
What season and what episode is this?
Great graphics love this episode
With the thin wings can an F-104 G carry a wing camera?
Nope,but they carried one and an infrared sensor just ahead of the windshield.
I remember this episode fondly.
Good thing he wasn't flying a P-39. Enterprise wouldn't stand a chance.
what episode was this from, i cant find it?
Tomorrow Is Yesterday
Episode aired 26 January 1967
Season 1 | Episode 19
@@tomy6917 THX!!!
Love this episode
This also you see the enterprise in the sky for the first time
GREAT special effects for the time. Still holds up.
The F-104 was a high altitude interceptor that could touch the edge of space....almost.
The F-104 known as the widow maker.
only in germany. Their variant was awful :(
A faulty design but it's fast
flying coffin
Aircraft is to fragile, Kirk as Top Gun : lets transport the dude.
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.
The 104 would definately out climb the Enterprise , think the Enterprise has the 104 in the turn
though ;)
Great, now I have to watch the whole episode. 🤣👍
The only time I'd be worried about getting beamed up is when taking a big dump.
😆😆😆
1:47 Wow, love that part.
A Starfighter chases a Starship.
Awesome!. 👍✈️
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.
Sulu, can't you keep this ship steady? Come on, man!
Oh Captain, stop being a Hideous Little B!tch!!
Like 👍 video...
One of my favorite episodes
I expect study on F-104 vs CVN-6 but this is a nice suprise
Captain Sir; something’s klingin’ onto the outer hull. Don’t daft yeoman, that’d b a foolish ... enterprise🍳
What was this episode called and series number etc? Thanks, people.
The episode is titled "Tomorrow is Yesterday". Season 1, Episode 21.
Yep looking at that as a 10 year old made me forget all about the vietnam war on the news....
What is the buzz number of the F-104 that actually takes off to intercept the Enterprise?
An Aviation Safety Network website says Starfighter FG-914/57-0194 crashed in Thailand, ten days before the Star Trek episode aired, in 1967.
@@kimisdaman
That's sad.
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.
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.
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.
Does anyone know what episode this is... I'd like to see it in full
@@qed100 Thankyou
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 ?
Lockheed F-104, the original Starfighter!
The Zipper (Widow Maker, Phallus Tube), had no chance against Big E.
episode?
Going mach 2.0 Sulu:"She's sluggish and slow sir"
This would have been Offutt AFB, Nebraska, the former home of SAC (Strategic Air Command - nukes). At the time, very authentic.
What episode was this anyone?
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.
This and Gary 7 were my two favorites....
Cool!!!!
I Dream of Jeannie meets Star Trek
Teri Garr was in a episode
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 th-cam.com/video/75qnxMd1YSY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Bhyq5QGy4Imlzuio
I wondered about this from the first time I saw this episode. How did the pilot explain how he got out of the plane? After he was beamed out the plane would have crashed with the ejection seat still inside. Then he sows up without a scratch?
No explanation would be asked for or allowed, CIA spooks would simply say "the pilot was stoned drunk and hallucinating wildly" as they expertly operated the complex fighter planes and or cameras that showed what they saw was really there.
We find in the books on Project Blue Book that it made some Generals of The Greatest Generation "purple faced with rage" when CIA desk pilots/dweebs/secret keepers willing to lie and destroy any person's life, at any cost, to protect their secrets... said this in official briefings.
No matter how drunk or stoned the pilot of an F-104 is, it will not protect him in the event of a crash.
You are missing the point at mach 2.3 - no matter what pilots saw or were crashed by the gov. and military had the same story - to keep the biggest secret of all time and all Earth Humans in a Dark Age of ignorance.
You do know this episode was fictional, right?
Yes... and I also know it was based on some all too true stories, such as the p-51 pilot ordered to close on a visiting space craft, only to be shot down and his wrecked plane recovered (perhaps with no body in it). I think was over Ohio just after WW2 - and newspaper reports said "Pilot Crashes While Trying to reach the Planet Venus".
SO great and insult to the greatest generation, who knew the "flying saucers" were real.
See when one starts with the knowing these things are real, and as the USAF said "pure hallucinations are extremely rare" - then one can go on to finding out what they are, how they come to our planet, and WHY. Some are good and some are unspeakably bad, doing unspeakably bad things to people's butts,{mine still hurts form the infections} and so "They" must be kept super secret... since they do unspeakable things we must never speak of them on pain of death.
The Enterprise having trouble with crosswinds or what!