Lockheed F-104C Starfighter
The fourth of the 1950s era “Century Series,” the F-104 Starfighter was designed around one single element: speed. Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, head of Lockheed’s famous “Skunk Works” factory, interviewed US Air Force pilots during the Korean War and sought their input on any new fighter. Since the pilots reported that they wanted high performance more than anything else, Johnson returned to the United States determined to deliver exactly that: a simple, point-defense interceptor marrying the lightest airframe to the most powerful engine then available, the superb General Electric J79.
When Johnson offered the L-098 design to the USAF in 1952, the service was so impressed that they created an entire competition for the aircraft to be accepted. The Lockheed design had the clear edge, though both North American’s and Northrop’s design went on to be built themselves—the North American F-107A Ultra Sabre and the Northrop T-38 Talon. The USAF purchased the L-098 as the F-104A Starfighter. The design changed very little from initial design to prototype to operational aircraft, which was done in the astonishing time of two years.
When the first F-104As reached the USAF in 1958, pilots quickly found that it was indeed a hot fighter—too hot. The Starfighter’s design philosophy of speed above all else resulted in an aircraft with a long fuselage, T-tail for stability, and small wings, which were so thin that special guards had to be put on the leading edges to avoid injuring ground personnel. Because of its small wing, the F-104 required a lot of runway. Because it was feared that a pilot who ejected from a F-104 would never clear the tail, a downward-ejection seat was fitted, but after killing over 20 pilots, the seat was retrofitted with a more reliable, upward-firing type. The design also was not very maneuverable in the horizontal, though it was difficult to match in the vertical. Its shape earned it the moniker “Missile With a Man In It” and “Zipper.”
One thing pilots did not complain about was its speed—the listed top speed of the F-104 was Mach 2.2, but this was because above that the fuselage would melt. The J79 was a near flawless engine that gave the Starfighter an excellent thrust-to-weight ratio; uniquely, the intake design of the Starfighter gave the engine a bansheelike wail. So superb was the F-104 at level speed and climbing that NASA leased several as trainers for the X-15 program, and in setting a number of speed and time-to-climb records.
If the F-104 had gotten a mixed reception at best in the USAF, Lockheed felt that it had potential as an export aircraft. Beating out several excellent British and other American designs in a 1961 competition, every NATO nation except France and Great Britain bought F-104s and manufactured their own as the F-104G; Japan also license-built Starfighters as F-104Js, while still more were supplied to Pakistan and Taiwan. Just as in USAF service, accident rates were incredibly high, particularly in West German and Canadian service—Germany lost 30 percent of its initial batch, and the Canadians over half. Worries that the F-104 was too “hot” for pilots usually transitioning from the F-86 were ignored. Its high accident rate earned such nicknames as “Widowmaker,” “Flying Coffin,” and “Ground Nail.” Pakistani pilots simply called it Badmash (“Criminal”) and the Japanese Eiko (“Glory,” inferring that it was the easiest way to reach it). German pilots joked that the quickest way to obtain a F-104 was to buy a patch of land and wait.
Nonetheless, once pilots learned how to tame the beast, the accident rates eased somewhat, and NATO pilots discovered that the Starfighter excelled as a low-level attack aircraft: fitted with bomb racks, the F-104 was remarkably stable at low altitude and high speed, and Luftwaffe pilots in particular found that they could sneak up on a target and be gone before ground defenses could react. The Italians in particular loved the F-104, building their own as the F-104S: these aircraft were equipped with multimode radar and armed with AIM-7 Sparrow and Aspide radar-guided missiles, making them a superb interceptor. Though most NATO nations reequipped their F-104 units with F-16s, F-18s, or Tornados beginning in 1980, the Italian F-104S fleet was continually upgraded and soldiered on until final retirement in 2004. 2578 F-104s were built, mostly F-104Gs; today over 150 survive in museums, with at least ten flyable examples, making it one of the best preserved of the Century Series.
56-0914 was delivered as a F-104C to the 479th Fighter Wing at George AFB, California sometime in 1957, where it was assigned to interceptor duties. From 1965 to 1967, it was detached to fly escort missions over North Vietnam, and was among the first F-104s to be camouflaged. The F-104's record in Vietnam was not an enviable one: they were too short ranged to go very deep into the North, and the one time that a F-104 was engaged with a MiG (a Chinese MiG-19), the Starfighter was shot down. When the USAF realized that the F-104 was simply not needed in theater, 56-0914 was sent back to George. It served with the 479th until 1971, when it was relegated to the USAF's last Starfighter unit, the 156th Tactical Fighter Wing (Puerto Rico ANG). When the F-104 was retired, 56-0914 was flown to the National Museum of the USAF for preservation.
Today, 0914 has been restored to its pre-Vietnam War bare metal finish, with large "buzz numbers" on the fuselage--so named in case people on the ground needed to identify a fighter pilot who was making unauthorized low passes. A Tactical Air Command patch and lightning bolt are carried on the tail.
Lockheed F-104C Starfighter
The fourth of the 1950s era “Century Series,” the F-104 Starfighter was designed around one single element: speed. Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, head of Lockheed’s famous “Skunk Works” factory, interviewed US Air Force pilots during the Korean War and sought their input on any new fighter. Since the pilots reported that they wanted high performance more than anything else, Johnson returned to the United States determined to deliver exactly that: a simple, point-defense interceptor marrying the lightest airframe to the most powerful engine then available, the superb General Electric J79.
When Johnson offered the L-098 design to the USAF in 1952, the service was so impressed that they created an entire competition for the aircraft to be accepted. The Lockheed design had the clear edge, though both North American’s and Northrop’s design went on to be built themselves—the North American F-107A Ultra Sabre and the Northrop T-38 Talon. The USAF purchased the L-098 as the F-104A Starfighter. The design changed very little from initial design to prototype to operational aircraft, which was done in the astonishing time of two years.
When the first F-104As reached the USAF in 1958, pilots quickly found that it was indeed a hot fighter—too hot. The Starfighter’s design philosophy of speed above all else resulted in an aircraft with a long fuselage, T-tail for stability, and small wings, which were so thin that special guards had to be put on the leading edges to avoid injuring ground personnel. Because of its small wing, the F-104 required a lot of runway. Because it was feared that a pilot who ejected from a F-104 would never clear the tail, a downward-ejection seat was fitted, but after killing over 20 pilots, the seat was retrofitted with a more reliable, upward-firing type. The design also was not very maneuverable in the horizontal, though it was difficult to match in the vertical. Its shape earned it the moniker “Missile With a Man In It” and “Zipper.”
One thing pilots did not complain about was its speed—the listed top speed of the F-104 was Mach 2.2, but this was because above that the fuselage would melt. The J79 was a near flawless engine that gave the Starfighter an excellent thrust-to-weight ratio; uniquely, the intake design of the Starfighter gave the engine a bansheelike wail. So superb was the F-104 at level speed and climbing that NASA leased several as trainers for the X-15 program, and in setting a number of speed and time-to-climb records.
If the F-104 had gotten a mixed reception at best in the USAF, Lockheed felt that it had potential as an export aircraft. Beating out several excellent British and other American designs in a 1961 competition, every NATO nation except France and Great Britain bought F-104s and manufactured their own as the F-104G; Japan also license-built Starfighters as F-104Js, while still more were supplied to Pakistan and Taiwan. Just as in USAF service, accident rates were incredibly high, particularly in West German and Canadian service—Germany lost 30 percent of its initial batch, and the Canadians over half. Worries that the F-104 was too “hot” for pilots usually transitioning from the F-86 were ignored. Its high accident rate earned such nicknames as “Widowmaker,” “Flying Coffin,” and “Ground Nail.” Pakistani pilots simply called it Badmash (“Criminal”) and the Japanese Eiko (“Glory,” inferring that it was the easiest way to reach it). German pilots joked that the quickest way to obtain a F-104 was to buy a patch of land and wait.
Nonetheless, once pilots learned how to tame the beast, the accident rates eased somewhat, and NATO pilots discovered that the Starfighter excelled as a low-level attack aircraft: fitted with bomb racks, the F-104 was remarkably stable at low altitude and high speed, and Luftwaffe pilots in particular found that they could sneak up on a target and be gone before ground defenses could react. The Italians in particular loved the F-104, building their own as the F-104S: these aircraft were equipped with multimode radar and armed with AIM-7 Sparrow and Aspide radar-guided missiles, making them a superb interceptor. Though most NATO nations reequipped their F-104 units with F-16s, F-18s, or Tornados beginning in 1980, the Italian F-104S fleet was continually upgraded and soldiered on until final retirement in 2004. 2578 F-104s were built, mostly F-104Gs; today over 150 survive in museums, with at least ten flyable examples, making it one of the best preserved of the Century Series.
56-0914 was delivered as a F-104C to the 479th Fighter Wing at George AFB, California sometime in 1957, where it was assigned to interceptor duties. From 1965 to 1967, it was detached to fly escort missions over North Vietnam, and was among the first F-104s to be camouflaged. The F-104's record in Vietnam was not an enviable one: they were too short ranged to go very deep into the North, and the one time that a F-104 was engaged with a MiG (a Chinese MiG-19), the Starfighter was shot down. When the USAF realized that the F-104 was simply not needed in theater, 56-0914 was sent back to George. It served with the 479th until 1971, when it was relegated to the USAF's last Starfighter unit, the 156th Tactical Fighter Wing (Puerto Rico ANG). When the F-104 was retired, 56-0914 was flown to the National Museum of the USAF for preservation.
Today, 0914 has been restored to its pre-Vietnam War bare metal finish, with large "buzz numbers" on the fuselage--so named in case people on the ground needed to identify a fighter pilot who was making unauthorized low passes. A Tactical Air Command patch and lightning bolt are carried on the tail.