Clive Cussler has the yellow Albatross bi-plane strafing a row of 10 F-105 Starfire jets at Brady Field in Mediterranean Caper.

The question is ... what is the F-105 Starfire ?

We all know Clive is meticulous with his descriptions and you'd think being an ex-airforce mechanic, he'd get it right.

There's this aircraft ;

F-94 Starfire

or there's this aircraft ;

F-105 Thunderchief

Anyone out there an aircraft buff ?

Unless CC was off by one digit or took creative license you're right DirkPitt. I remember laughing when i read that biplane strafing modern jets in Med Caper. :lol:

The 105's thunder chickens, awesome if you got them airborne 'for end of runway if engine ran.
In Cusslers "new" Albatross with new(assumed) guns, i'd take the slow biplane based on pilot combat experience as the winner in the air.
Roger

Fellow Cusslerites: I think he took "creative liscense" in describing the USAF jets that were on the ramp at Brady field. He wrote the book in the very early 70's, long after the F-94 Starfire was out of service (although it would have been in service when Clive was in the AF in the 50's, and hence maybe his familiarity with the name Starfire). Also, the F-105 Thunderchief was winding down it's service with the AF at that time, being phased out of Vietnam and having been replaced in Europe years before (also, was generally considered at best an interceptor, and more often a fighter bomber, rather than a true "fighter").
My interpretation was that the TYPE of jets under attack weren't important, and in fact if he'd used a factual plane type, knowledgable people would have tried to make a real comparison between the types. The ALBATROSS was the important item. It served as a "local" conection to the aviation history of that area, and it underscored the vulnerabilty of modern technology if you let your guard down or underestimated your potential enemy's abilities (just as the Albatross pilot underestimated Dirk's abilities just because he was flying a "cumbersome" old PBY Catalina) Remember, Clive made a very good explaination for the use of the Albatross in the book; that being it caused damage and problems for the USAF and Americans, WITHOUT causing an international incident.
I always thought that The Mediterrainian Caper was one of his better books (if a little short), in that it did a great job of establishing the characters. The plot is also quite fluid, in that it wouldn't take a lot to update it for a movie today! :P

The F-105 was called the Starfighter not the Starfire. I think that's what has everyone confused. My copy of Med Caper says Starfighter. Maybe an earlier version called the plane a Starfire and was corrected in later editions.
Long live NUMA!!!

It could have possibly just been an editorial blunder. Clive could have written it the right way and it may have been changed without his knowledge...?

If Im not mistaken, the F-104 is the Starfighter and the F-105 is the Thunderchief...
Mike

I thought that too when I read the books. A google search turns up summaries of the book, and that's it. Sounds like a challenge, so I'll into this later....

Maybe he got really so into it when he was writing it that he made up his own personal jet for the peice? :P t:

I think that it's strange that Cussler uses F-105 Starfire which does not exist but still he uses C-133 Cargomaster and PBY Catalina which are real planes. I found this page when looking F-105 Starfire: MetricBike Cyclenews

Use search and look for starfire. It's a news that Ducati vs. Jet race is cancelled. There is mentioned F-104 Starfire. So maybe there is somekind a typo and it was supposed to be F-104 instead of F-105. It looks to me that F-104 Starfire is Italian version of F-104 Starfighter. Maybe there was misunderstanding of diffenrent models. Ofcourse i can't be sure about this. Feel free to correct if i'm wrong.

My 2 cents.

is there not a book cover of med caper with a picture of the albotross strafin the f-105? If anyone has, that will answer possibly what plane it is and if it was id wrong by Clive