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Introduction

"It is the most dangerous, insidious airplane that I have ever flown, having many coffin corners that you can get yourself into without natural warnings... and leaving yourself no place to go!"

Believe it or not, those are the words of a veteran Starfighter Pilot, who is a big fan of the F-104. The manned missle from Lockheed's famed "Skunk Works" has engendered this love/hate relationship in thousands of the free world's fighter pilots. It is an airplane that, when flown to the optimum of it's performance envelope, could outshine any of it's contemporaries, but when mishandled would be unforgiving in the extreme.

The genisis of the Starfighter is a legacy of air combat lessons learned during the Korean War. Fighter Pilots emerging from battle with the Mig-15 (their 10 to 1 kill ratio not withstanding) wanted a machine which could outperform the nimble Russian fighters. They were winning their air war with old head savy... making the Migs fight on their terms. If they had to go to war again, they didn't want to take the chance that the communists would learn from Korea. They wanted an air superiority fighter and the Air Force, with a clarity of foresight borne of a shooting war, agreed. And so it was that in March of 1952 the Lockheed design team, under C.L. "Kelly Johnson, began work on what was to become the most widely used double sonic fighter ever developed. By November the F-104 had emerged as the needle-nosed, short-winged, high tailed purebred that it has remained for nearly a quarter of a century.

Two prototypes of the Lockheed model 83 were ordered, under the designation XF-104, in March of 1953. The two prototypes were to be powered by the Wright J-65 engine, and would be used to flight test the new lightweight fighter concept. (The lightweights of the '70s are somewhat tardy follow-ons to the original lightweight fighter... the F-104.) The first of the prototypes to take to the air was 53-37786, making the Starfighter first flight on 7 February, 1954. Max performance of the J-65 engine was realized on March 25, 1955, when the XF read a speed of Mach 1.79.

The concept had been proven, and the fifteen YF-104 A's which followed the two XF's embodied several design changes, not the least of which was the more powerful General Electric J-79 engine, which would prove capable of pushing the 104 beyond Mach 2. (And it's structural design limits.)

The YF-104A, with it's General Electric YJ79-GE-3 engine, hit mach 2 in a flight on April 27, 1955. The following February, the first F-104A made it's maidne flight, but because of the new and broadened technological horizons being bridged by the Starfighter, it would not see service with operational units for nearly two years. The F-104 flight test program was one of the most exhaustive ever undertaken for a fighter, invloving fifty two airplanes and more than eight thousand flights before operational certification.

The F-104 finally reached operational status in January of 1958, with the 83rd Fighter Interceptor Wing of ADC. It's debut was shortlived. A series of engine problems resulted in several accidents which lead to the grounding of all F-104's in April. Eventually the 104's were retrofitted with the J79-GE-3B engine, and returned to service, but the bloom was off the rose. It was apparent that the Starfighter lacked the "seven league boots" to provide adequate air defense coverage... at least with the numbers of 104's then planned for production. And it's avionics were strickly VFR oriented, putting it outside of the then existant system for all-weather interceptor missions. Before the decade was out the Starfighter had been removed from the USAF active combat inventory. Twenty five of the F-104A's were given to Chiang's Nationalist Chinese, and twelve went to King Hussein's Jordanian Air Force. Twenty four suffered the ignominy of conversion to QF-104A drones almost before their first set of tires were worn out! Three were converted to NF-104A's, and may have drawn top glamour assignments of all Starfighters. [56-0763, our car's tail number, was one of these three which were stationed at Edwards AFB as chase for the X plane project.] The remainder wound up with the Air Guard.

While the F-104A was still in the flight test phase, a two seat version was flown for the first time, in February, 1957. It was designated the F-104B, and the addition of the second tandem cockpit dictated the removal of the Vulcan cannon, some avionics and fuel. It's flight characteristics were essentially the same as the A model, and it served as both trainer and operational backup of the F-104A.

Despite the problems encountered with the F-104A in it's initial operational deployments, it's impact on aviation technology cannot be denied. It broke every record in sight, and left the competition gasping for breath as they staggered back to their drawing boards. The same year that the Starfighter entered service with operational units, had it's problems, was grounded, and eventually reinstated, it also set records for straightaway speed, altitude and time-to-climb to seven different levels. During May of 1958 the F-104A reached an altitude of 91,243 feet, and hit an average speed of 1,404mph on a two way course. A year later, in response to the record altitude flight flown by the Navy's Phantom, USAF raised the redline on the Starfighter from Mach 2 to Mach 2.4 for a one-time altitude record attempt. They were not disappointed. The 104 went over the top at 103,395 feet!

Lockheed was confident about it's manned missle's future, and was not satisfied with the limited prospects of sales to USAF's ADC. During 1958 it introduced the F-104C, which featured a more powerful engine, provision for aerial refueling via the removable boom on the left side of the fuselage, and the capability to carry and accurately deliver air to ground stores. 77 of the "C" model were built, and TAC's 479th TFW was the only USAF operational unit to fly it in the late '50's.

Lockheed's enthusiasm for the Starfighter may not have found a welcome reception in the United States, but Europe's Air Forces were still rebuilding and they looked upon the 104 as their chance to prove their worth as military allies, while picking up some residual prestige from the operation of the world's hottest fighter plane. In March of 1959 the West German government became the first of several NATO countries to sign license production agreements with Lockheed. The Starfighter would eventually be built by no less than seven countries, including the United States, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Japan. It would be operated by 15 Air Forces, making it the most widely used double sonic fighter in history. (Besides the countries producing the F-104, it was operated by the Air Forces of Nationalist China, Jordan, Pakistan, Spain, Denmark, Turkey Greece, and Norway.)

The Starfighter production program cannot be overstated. It was one of the most significant defense happenings of it's day, from the Lockheed sales effort on to the successful realization of complete commonality of all parts from all factories. It helped to strengthen the free world alliance through the shared production responsibility and the operation of indentical support facilities at Air Force Bases all over Europe. It set the pattern for several such joint ventures in the years to come. (Though none would be as successful or widely accepted until the advent of the lightweight fighter of the '70's.) The manufacturing countries not only gained manufacturing expertise, they gained immesureable logistic planning capabilities, technological knowledge, and economic side benefits. The Starfighter's career has been one of superlatives... worldwide superlatives.

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