The F-104 served with fifteen major international Air Forces The Starfighter was fast but also quite difficult to fly. Several particularly infamous accidents with a large number of fatalities earned it the nickname "widowmaker." This volume is a comprehensive visual survey of the F-104 and it's numerous versions; more than 200 photographs are included. The F-104 was a challenge even for the greatest pilots of the era; Chuck Yeager was nearly killed in an F-104 , and was severely injured ejecting from the aircraft (as depicted in the film "The Right Stuff"), top scoring fighter ace of all time Erich Hartmann bitterly protested against the Luftwaffe's adoption of the type after flying the aircraft, Robert Lawrence Jr (first African American astronaut), Ivan Kincheloe (first man to reach space in 1956) were killed in F-104 accidents. One of two XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic bombers was destroyed after a mid-air collision with an F-104 in what is sometimes referred to as "the most expensive plane crash of all time".