It had the wings of a razor, the body of a dart, and the soul of a rocket. In an era defined by the desperate race for speed, one aircraft pushed the boundaries of flight so far that its pilots were said to be “riding a spear.” This is the story of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a machine so fast and so futuristic that it was known by one perfectly chilling nickname: The Missile With a Man In It.This Dronescapes documentary explores the complete, controversial, and captivating history of one of the Cold War’s most ambitious projects. Our story begins in the legendary Lockheed Skunk Works, under the direction of the brilliant and demanding designer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson. In the wake of the Korean War, American pilots demanded a new kind of fighter—not a lumbering dogfighter, but a pure, lightweight interceptor that could climb to astonishing altitudes and fly at twice the speed of sound to destroy incoming Soviet bombers.Kelly Johnson’s answer was the F-104. It was a masterpiece of minimalist design, stripped of everything that did not contribute to performance. It featured tiny, trapezoidal wings so thin and sharp they had to be covered on the ground to protect the crew. It was built around the most powerful engine of its day, the mighty General Electric J79, and wrapped in a sleek, aerodynamic fuselage that earned it the moniker “The Silver Sliver.” When it first flew, the Starfighter shattered every record. It was the first aircraft to simultaneously hold the world records for speed, altitude, and time-to-climb. For the USAF, it was a symbol of American technological supremacy. For NASA, it was an essential tool, a space trainer that took pilots to the very edge of the atmosphere.But this incredible performance came at a cost. The F-104 was a demanding and unforgiving aircraft. Its tiny wings gave it a terrifyingly high landing speed, and its unique T-tail design created the potential for a deadly, unrecoverable stall. While it saw limited service with the USAF, the Starfighter’s story took a dramatic and tragic turn when it was adopted by NATO allies as their primary strike aircraft.We delve into the heart of the “Starfighter Crisis,” particularly in West Germany, where the F-104 was tasked with a low-level, all-weather nuclear strike role—a mission for which it was never designed. The combination of inexperienced pilots, unforgiving European weather, and a demanding flight profile led to a catastrophic accident rate, earning the F-104 its other, more infamous nickname: the “Witwenmacher,” or “Widowmaker.”Was the F-104 a flawed design, or a brilliant machine pushed into the wrong role by the political realities of the Cold War?Join Dronescapes as we answer this question, using rare archival footage, stunning modern aerials of surviving Starfighters, and expert analysis. From its glory days as a record-breaking interceptor to its dark days as a European fighter-bomber, this is the definitive story of the beautiful, brilliant, and deadly F-104 Starfighter.If you are fascinated by the bleeding edge of aviation history, please LIKE this video and SUBSCRIBE to our channel.Was the Starfighter a misunderstood masterpiece or a deadly mistake? Let us know in the COMMENTS below.