Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter"

The history

Picture 3.1 A German Air Force F-104 taking off

F-104 project started in 1952 following an US Air Force request for an advanced supersonic air-superiority fighter. The jet era began only 13 years before that, on August 27, 1939, when the German experimental turbojet powered aircraft He-178 took off the ground for the first time. The first practical jet plane in service was the German Me-262. The jet propulsion alone was a wonderful achievement. However, the plane design itself hasn't reached the state-of-the-art. The planes were structurally similar to piston planes, their maneuverability was poor, and they suffered from a significant problems related to the uncompleted jet engine design.
The USA developed jet technology during the war. By 1945 they have built a successful fighter - the Lockheed P-80 (later F-80) "Shooting Star". Shortly after the war, American research labs were given the German research materials in the areas of rocket science and jet aircraft. The main target of this investigation was breaking the sonic barrier. When the plane's speed was about the speed of sound, devastating aerial waves were created by the forward parts of the aircraft. These hit the tail, and created the widely known "shatter" phenomena. When the speed of the aircraft was further increased, the tail could be torn off. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, the famous Lockheed plane constructor was one of the first who met the problem. The P-38 prototype was too fast at dives. Even when Johnson strengthened the tail, it didn't help. The aircraft crashed. Johnson understood the severeness of the problem, and to handle it, he installed dive brakes (a device that increased the drag, and therefore decreased the speed during the dive). Finally, a special X-1 rocket-engined research plane with Charles "Chuck" Yeager as a pilot passed the speed of sound. America's rivals from across the globe didn't fall behind - a famous Russian scientist, Academician Keldish, developed a mathematical model of a flying supersonic plane. The other result of this research was America's missile program that led to the creation of the "super-V-2" - the Redstone ballistic rocket.
The Korean War began in 1950, and lasted until 1953. It was the only war where both jet and piston engined fighters were used in large amounts. The American Air Force introduced the F-80 "Shooting Star", the F-84 "Thunderstick" and the F-86 "Saber". Their opponents, supplied by Russia were MiG-15 and other early jets. The Korean War was the first conflict when problems with the new jets could be found and fixed. It was also the beginning of the Cold War and the arms race that kept the aircraft development indefatigable for the next fifty years.

Development of the F-104

Picture 3.2 A schematic picture of a F-104

As mentioned above, the F-104 was created as an air superiority fighter and interceptor. One of the plane's developers was the famous Clarence "Kelly Johnson". Like many other of his planes, the F-104 was very different from that time's standards in both design and aerodynamics. Sometimes it was called "a missile with a man in it" because of the thin fuselage and the little wings (6.68 meters wingspan relatively to 16.61 meters length and 4.11 meters height on the XF-104). The first prototype was the XF-104. Lockheed tested a lot of new technology on it. It was rolled out in March 1953. It made its first flight in less than a year, on February 1954. In the beginning the XF-104 used the Curtis Wright J-65 engine, but a while later, the engineers decided that using the General Electric J-79 engine, which was to be used in other advanced supersonic aircraft like the XB-70 and the B-58, would improve the generic specifications. The XF-104 had such technical specifications:

Table 3.1 XF-104 parameters.

F-104 series

Picture 3.3 An US Air Force F-104 landing

Here is a table that sums up the models of the F-104:

Table 3.2 The versions of F-104

F-104s were very successful and in West Germany they passed out of service only in 1990. The F-104G was the best one among them. The F-104s usually carried one M-61 "Vulcan" cannon and two AIM-9B "Sidewinder" heat-seeking missiles. From the other point of view, it always remained problematic for the pilots to fly, and its maneuverability was quite low. Many aircraft were lost, and the public disliked the aircraft. The fact that the F-104 still remained in service for 30 years teaches us about its importance. Indeed, it seems that the F-104 was intended for intercepting Soviet strategic bombers, and as it didn't have any adequate replacements for many years, it had to be kept in service.
Quite surprisingly, now the F-104 is very popular: there are a lot of fan clubs in many countries and a lot of Internet sites devoted to the F-104. The plane is so popular, that there is even a F-104 CD-ROM with videos and pictures!
F-104 passed out of service with most of its generation planes, like most of the B-52 versions and SR-71 "Blackbird", the great creation of the same "Kelly" Johnson, who designed the F-104. Now, the last two F-104s under the name NASA 825 (two-seat version) and NASA 826 together with F-16XL, SR-71A and other magnificent planes take part in "sonic boom" research program at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

Some of F-104's records

F-104 as one of the most powerful and good designed planes of its era maintained a lot of world records. Here is a list of its records:

• USAF time-to-intercept record : Target: 10669 meter, 227 km. from base time-to-intercept: 8 minutes 59.9 seconds. Average speed 1850 km/h. Performed by Captain M. Schaff, USAF; Captain B. Jones, USAF. 10/12/1958.
• World speed record : 2259 km/h (about Mach 2). Performed by Captain W. W. Irwin, USAF. YF-104A. 17/5/1958.
• World altitude record : 27,813 meter. Performed by Major Howard C. Johnson, USAF. YF-104A. 7/5/1958. 31,515 meter. Performed by Captain Joe B. Jordan, USAF. F-104C. 14,12,1959.
• Women's world speed record. 1936.75 km/h (Mach 1.6). Performed by Jacqueline Cochran. 1/5/1963. 2299.58 km/h (Mach 1.8). Performed by Jacqueline Cochran. 11/5/1963.
• World time-to-climb record :

 

Graph 3.1 F-104's World time-to-climb record by Lieutenant William T. Smith, USAF; Lieutenant Einar K. Enevoldson, USAF. 18/12/1958.

Fact Sheet

Picture 3.4 A NF-104. Note the additional rocket thruster

Table 3.3 F-104G's description and specifications

Table 3.4 F-104G's propulsion and performance