The F-104C Starfighter is a real symbol of ‘50s and ‘60s aviation. It looks fast. It looks aggressive. It just exudes air superiority. And yet, when the US really needed to establish that superiority over the jungles of Vietnam it was the F-4 Phantom that got the call.
When the results of Project Featherduster were made public in the late 1990s some aviation enthusiasts and genuine experts took its findings as evidence that the Tactical Air Command had made the wrong decision about which aeroplane to bring off its figurative bench to replace the F-100 Super Sabre as MIGCAP.
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the “Century Series” of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), it was developed into an all-weather multirole aircraft in the early 1960s and produced by several other nations, seeing widespread service outside the United States.
After a series of interviews with Korean War fighter pilots in 1951, Kelly Johnson, then lead designer at Lockheed, opted to reverse the trend of ever-larger and more complex fighters to produce a simple, lightweight aircraft with maximum altitude and climb performance. On 4 March 1954, the Lockheed XF-104 took to the skies for the first time, and on 26 February 1958, the production fighter was activated by the USAF.
Just a few months later, it was pressed into action during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, when it was deployed as a deterrent to Chinese MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters. Problems with the General Electric J79 engine and a preference for fighters with longer ranges and heavier payloads meant its service with the USAF was short-lived, though it was reactivated for service during the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the Vietnam War, when it flew more than 5,000 combat sorties.
A formation of two U.S. Air Force Lockheed F-104A-15-LO Starfighters (s/n 56-0769 and 56-0781) in flight
While its time with the USAF was brief, the Starfighter found much more lasting success with other NATO and allied nations. In October 1958, West Germany selected the F-104 as its primary fighter aircraft. Canada soon followed, along with the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, and Italy. The European nations formed a construction consortium that was the largest international manufacturing program in history to that point, though the Starfighter’s export success was marred in 1975 by the discovery of bribe payments made by Lockheed to many foreign military and political figures for securing purchase contracts.
The Starfighter eventually flew with fifteen air forces, but its poor safety record, especially in Luftwaffe service, brought it substantial criticism. The Germans lost 292 of 916 aircraft and 116 pilots from 1961 to 1989, its high accident rate earning it the nickname Witwenmacher (“widowmaker”) from the German public. The final production version, the F-104S, was an all-weather interceptor built by Aeritalia for the Italian Air Force. It was retired from active service in 2004, though several F-104s remain in civilian operation with Florida-based Starfighters Inc.
A West German Luftwaffe Lockheed F-104F Starfighter aircraft (serial BB+365), in 1960. This aircraft was lost in a air show on 19 June 1962 near Knapsack, Northrhine-westphalia (Germany), when four planes crashed into the ground after disorientation of the formation leader, the usaf pilot Jon Speer. All pilots, three german first lieutenants and the US-american captain, were killed
The Starfighter featured a radical design, with thin, stubby wings attached farther back on the fuselage than most contemporary aircraft. The wing provided excellent supersonic and high-speed, low-altitude performance, but also poor turning capability and high landing speeds.
It was the first production aircraft to achieve Mach 2, and the first aircraft to reach an altitude of 100,000 ft (30,000 m) after taking off under its own power. The Starfighter established world records for airspeed, altitude, and time-to-climb in 1958, becoming the first aircraft to hold all three simultaneously.
It was also the first aircraft to be equipped with the M61 Vulcan autocannon.
Top Photo: Lockheed XF-104 (S/N 53-7786) in flight
Sources: YouTube; Wikipedia