[kach22i]

The not quite right stuff - F-104 Starfighter

The tiny wings made takeoff and landing difficult. To get the approach speeds down from ludicrous to simply insane, the F-104 was equipped with "boundary layer control", sometimes just called "blown flaps".................

Landing the F-104 was a tricky business. It was very unforgiving at traffic pattern speeds. The T-38 was actually designed to teach you how to fly an F-104.
A bleed air failure on one wing could be fatal. If one doesn't blow, then over you go.

Even with the blown flaps approach speeds were in the 190 knot range! That's 20 knots faster than a no-flap approach in a T-38. Smokin!

Another problem with the Starfighter was that it got very "draggy" at high angles of attack. This was common with most supersonic aircraft but it was really pronounced on the F-104. At slow speeds those tiny wings were working so hard to produce lift that a tremendous amount of induced drag was produced. This puts you into what's called the "region of reverse command". The slower you go the more thrust is required just to break even. Get too slow and you'll drop like a rock long before you actually stall the wing.