940 knots at sea level?
With bombs?
The Starfighter?
The thing was fast at 940k you'd probably have about 5 minutes fuel I believe it held the lo level speed record at around 1200knots. Now for my article on the 104 at Red Flag
"It was the morning of Nov 18th 1977 when we realized something had to be done about never having been shot down during Exercise Red Flag 78-1.
Born of lessons learned from the Vietnam War, each two-week Red Flag serial was designed to improve the survivabili-ty and combat effectiveness of U.S. fighter pilots in realistic simulated combat situations. The idea was to expose each pilot to 10 flying missions which included complex planning for, and leading of large force packages, typically of some 100 aircraft. The most valuable lessons were learned by flying the full range of combat fighter and bomber missions; delivering live weapons on scored tactical ranges; and, being tracked and "fired upon" by highly realistic electronic surface-to-air missile (SAM) simulators.
Each 10 mission series was held several times a year at Nellis Air Force Base, just north of Las Vegas, Nevada. Owning to the very close relationship the Canadian Forces enjoyed with all branches of the U.S. forces, and does to this day, we were invited to participate.
Typically, Canadian fighter pilots from both Cold Lake, Alta, and Bagotville, Que, were very successful during these exercises because of the tried and very true Canadian flying training system. In Red Flag, we learned, but also contributed.
So. we had this little problem. There were even cheeky suggestions we weren't actually flying in the exercise because hardly anyone saw us and we never appeared under anyone's cross hairs or on video. No small wonder! We had practiced high speed, ultra low-level flying at.
home on CYR 205, the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range just north of CFB Cold Lake, for a full month before flying on the sophisticated, instrumented desert ranges of the U.S. southwest.
From their higher altitudes, the odd F-15 Eagle pilot had picked us up with their look-down radars as fast movers down in the weeds. We flew at 540 knots ground speed (900 feet per second) at 100 feet above ground level (AGL) - often
lower, and without a radar altimeter. We even camouflaged our silver CF-104s with buckets of carefully blended water paints purchased locally in Las Vegas. Rain dances were not encouraged. The highly successful but decidedly ugly poor-man's Stealth was the brainchild of Capt John Bagshaw, a widely respected Canadian fighter pilot on 417 Tactical Fighter (Operational Training) Sqn based at Cold Lake.
Some Eagle drivers had fired a radar or heat-seeking missile at us, but we could easily outrun them. Rarely had SAM sites even seen, let alone fired at us! The bottom line: CF-104s had never been shot down nor captured on video during Red Flag exercises.
So, in his inimitable style, Capt Laurie Hawn, on whose wing I would fly for the last launch of the day, indeed, the exercise, suggested we "give 'em a fighting chance." The plan was to slow down to gear and flap speed as we approached a north-south mountain range up in the north-west corner of the Tonopah weapons range complex, smoke around the southern corner (there was lots of it coming out of a J-79 turbojet if it wasn't in afterburner), hang everything out (gear, flaps, speed brakes), turn on our landing lights and head straight into site 57's lethal envelope, a SAM 3 simulator just to the west of the mountains. We even had the temerity to call them up and tell them precisely to the second when we'd be there and from what direction. Simple. Sitting, benevolent ducks! We'd finally get on somebody's video for the last mass debrief.We took off, headed north to the range, hit our targets with characteristic accuracy and designated time on target (TOT) then slowed for "the plan." Turning north from Cedar Pass, we climbed up to two or three hundred feet AGL and flew straight and level at Site 57 all slow and dirty. Just about overhead the missile site, we picked up two high-speed U.S. Marine F-4 "smokers," they each had two J-79s, at 10 o'clock, opposite direction all the way up at a nosebleed 1,000 foot or so altitude. Having made our point to the SAM site, Laurie called "gear, flaps, burners, hard left." After a two or three minute chase, we ran them down, closed to missile and gun range and shot down the two U.S. F-4s. Subsequent gun film analysis confirmed our kills.
Turns out they saw us but, because of our slow speed, they thought we were Harriers and, therefore, no threat. Also turns out the SAM site folks saw us, came to the same conclusion and claimed two Harrier kills. The strenuous objections of the Harrier folks and truthful claim that their closest aircraft was some 50 miles away from the site at the time were met with decidedly rude comments! Still no claims against Canadian CF-104s."
