BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

Captain Buster was about to take his CF-18 fighter back to base.  Several boring hours of flying over the Canadian tundra had left his aircraft at near bingo fuel.  His stomach started to rumble as he started to contemplate what was for dinner at the mess hall that night.  "Maybe that cute logistics officer would be there again tonight" he thought with a smile. "PING!"   His thoughts were rudely interrupted as a blip appeared on the very edge of his radar screen.   "Unidentified bogey detected coming in from the north!"  Blared the excited voice of his wingman through the headset.  Captain Buster wished he could go back in time thirty seconds and preemptively turn down the volume.   "Calm down, Newbie..."  Answered Buster.  "It's probably nothing.  Just in case, lets check it out before we run out of gas."  He did not want his wingman to know it, but this one just did not feel right.  The hair...

CF-104 Starfighter in "Tiger Meet" livery. For some reason, the two-versus-single-engine debate never seems to go away. Possibly the day before the Harper government announces its plan to replace the CF-18, a new study questions the wisdom of going with a single engine aircraft. Morbidly entitled "One Dead Pilot", the study concludes that the single engine F-35 is a poor choice for Canada due to its single engine design.  The piece often compares the F-35 to the infamous CF-104 Starfighter, a fighter that earned the nickname "Widowmaker" due to its sketchy (and deadly) safety record. One Dead Pilot 9 June 2014 Byers Embargoed 2 For one thing, the CF-104 is a TERRIBLE example of single-engined jet fighter safety.  The Starfighter was notoriously unforgiving, being little more than a "missile with a man in it".  Its tiny wings provided the glide characteristics of a lawn dart, and its onboard diagnostic systems would be considered ...