Charity shall cover the multitude of sins, says the King James Bible, and it must be said that speed can do much the same thing. And speed is what the Lockheed F104 'Starfighter' was mighty good at.
Entering service in 1958, the Starfighter was the first operational combat aircraft capable of sustained MACH 2 Flight and the first aircraft to hold simultaneous world records for both speed and altitude.
But despite the glamour of its speed the aircraft was often considered to have evil handling characteristics, not least by World War Two Fighter Ace Erich Hartmann (who scored 352 air combat victories over Allied aircraft in WW2), who publically and controversially resigned from his high ranking position in the post-war West German Air Force due to his strong opposition to the F-104 being adopted by the Luftwaffe.
Looking at the safety record of the plane, it seems that Herr Hartmann might have had a point - more than 30 per cent of all the Starfighters in Luftwaffe service were lost in accidents, while the Canadian Air Force lost 50 per cent of its F104s and the USAF safety record was 26.4 accidents per 100,000 flight hours (that's apparently quite a lot).
Even so, the last F104s were only withdrawn from service in 2004 by the Italian air force...
This particular Messerschmitt-built F104 was retired by the German air force in 1987, since when it and has been displayed at various museums in the UK. Now privately owned by Jet Art Aviation ,the aircraft has undergone some cosmetic work prior to being offered for sale as a Museum/Display aircraft.
But unfortunately the aircraft is not airworthy and has no engine or weapon systems (boo). The cockpit is complete, however, and comes with its very own Martin Baker ejection seat, stick, throttle box and instruments, so you can at least play at being a Cold War fighter ace...
And the price? If you have to ask...
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