Lockheed F-104C Starfighter - ANG, Phoenix, AZ - Static Aircraft Displays on Waymarking.com

The F-104 Starfighter is a single seat, single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the US Air Force (USAF) by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard (ANG) units until it was phased out in 1975. The NASA flew a small mixed fleet of F-104 types in supersonic flight tests and spaceflight programs until they were retired in 1994.

Dubbed "The Missile With A Man In it", the radical Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was the first operational combat aircraft capable of sustained Mach 2 speeds and the first plane to hold both speed and altitude records simultaneously.

USAF F-104Cs saw service during the Vietnam War, and F-104A aircraft were deployed by Pakistan briefly during the Indo-Pakistani wars. Republic of China Air Force (Taiwan) F-104s also engaged the People's Liberation Army Air Force (China) over the disputed island of Quemoy. The ultimate production version of the basic fighter-model F-104 was the F-104S all-weather interceptor designed by the Italian company Aeritalia for the Italian Air Force, and equipped with radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow missiles. An advanced F-104 with a high-mounted wing, known as the CL-1200 Lancer, did not proceed past the mock-up stage.

A set of modifications produced the F-104G model, which won a NATO competition for a new fighter-bomber. Several two-seat trainer versions were also produced, the most numerous being the TF-104G. A total of 2,578 Starfighters were eventually produced, mostly by NATO members. The F-104 served with the air forces of over a dozen nations. The operational service of the Starfighter ended with its retirement by the Italian Air Force in May 2004, some 46 years after its introduction in 1958 by the USAF.

The poor safety record of the Starfighter brought the aircraft into the public eye, especially in Luftwaffe service. The subsequent Lockheed bribery scandals surrounding the original purchase contracts caused considerable political controversy in Europe and Japan.

Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, the chief engineer at Lockheed's Skunk Works, visited Korea in December 1951 and spoke with fighter pilots about what sort of aircraft they wanted. At the time, the US pilots were confronting the MiG-15 with North American F-86 Sabres, and many of the American pilots felt that the MiGs were superior to the larger and more complex American design. The pilots requested a small and simple aircraft with excellent performance. Armed with this new-found information, Johnson immediately started the design of such an aircraft, following his return to the US. In March, his team was assembled; they studied several aircraft designs, ranging from small designs at 8,000lb/3,629kg, to fairly large ones at 50,000lb/23,680kg. In order to achieve the desired performance, Lockheed chose a minimalist approach: a design that would achieve high performance by wrapping the lightest, most aerodynamically efficient airframe possible around a single powerful engine. The engine chosen was the new GE J79, an engine of dramatically improved performance compared to contemporary designs. The small L-246 design powered by a single J79 remained essentially identical to the L-083 Starfighter as eventually delivered.

The design was presented to the USAF in November 1952, and they were interested enough to create a General Operating Requirement for a lightweight fighter to replace the North American F-100. Three companies replied to the requirement: the Republic AP-55, an improved version of its prototype XF-91 Thunderceptor; the North American NA-212, which would eventually evolve into the F-107; and the Northrop N-102 Fang, another J79-powered design. Although all were interesting, Lockheed had an insurmountable lead, and was granted a development contract in March 1953 for two prototypes, these were given the designation XF-104.

Work progressed quickly, with a mock-up ready for inspection at the end of April, and work starting on two prototypes late in May. Meanwhile, the J79 engine was not ready; both prototypes were instead designed to use the Wright J65 engine, a licensed-built version of the Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphire. The first prototype was completed by early 1954 and first flew on 4 March at Edwards AFB. The total time from design to first flight was only about two years.

When the USAF revealed the existence of the XF-104 they only gave a vague description of it, similar to the secret F-117A in the 1980s. But surprisingly artists working for various magazines came up with drawings very close to the actual design. A drawing in the Popular Mechanics, August 1954 edition was very close to the actual design.

The prototype had hopped into the air on 18 February, but it was not counted as a first flight, on the first official flight it had experienced landing gear retraction problems. The second prototype was destroyed a few weeks later during gun-firing trials but in November 1955 the prototype was accepted by the USAF. The J65 with afterburner did not allow the aircraft to reach its design speed. Directional stability issues needed to be corrected and additional fuel carried.

Based on the XF-104 testing and evaluations, the next variant, the YF-104A, was lengthened to 54ft 8in/16.66m and fitted with a GE J79 engine, a modified landing gear and modified air intakes.

The first YF-104A flew on 17 February 1956 and with the other 16 trials aircraft were soon carrying out aircraft and equipment evaluation and tests. Modifications were made to the aircraft including airframe strengthening and a ventral fin was added. Problems were encountered with the J79 afterburner and delays were caused by the need to add Sidewinder missiles, but by January 1958 the first operational squadron was formed.

The F-104 featured a radical wing design. Most jet fighters of the period used a swept-wing or delta-wing planform. This allowed a reasonable balance between aerodynamic performance, lift, and internal space for fuel and equipment. Lockheed's tests, however, determined that the most efficient shape for high-speed, supersonic flight was a very small, straight, mid-mounted, trapezoidal wing. The new wing design was extremely thin, in fact, the wing's leading-edges were so thin (0.016in/0.41mm) and sharp that they presented a hazard to ground crews, and protective guards had to be installed during ground operations. The thinness of the wings required fuel tanks and landing gear to be placed in the fuselage. The hydraulic cylinders driving the ailerons had to be only 1in/25mm thick to fit. The wings had both leading- and trailing-edge flaps. The small, highly-loaded wing resulted in an unacceptably high landing speed, so a boundary layer control system (BLCS) of blown flaps was incorporated, bleeding engine air over the trailing-edge flaps to energize airflow over the flaps and thus improve lift. The system was a boon to safe landings, although it proved to be a maintenance problem in service, and landing without the BLCS could be a harrowing experience.

The stabilator (horizontal tail surface) was mounted atop the fin to reduce inertia coupling. Because the vertical fin was only slightly shorter than the length of each wing and nearly as aerodynamically effective, it could act as a wing on rudder application (a phenomenon known as Dutch roll). To offset this effect, the wings were canted downward, giving 10° anhedral.

The Starfighter's fuselage had a high fineness ratio, ie, it was slender, tapering towards the sharp nose, and had a small frontal area. The fuselage was tightly packed, containing the radar, cockpit, cannon, fuel, landing gear, and engine. This fuselage and wing combination provided extremely low drag except at high angle of attack, at which point induced drag became very high. As a result, the Starfighter had excellent acceleration, rate of climb and potential top speed, but its sustained turn performance was poor. A later modification on the F-104A/B allowed use of the takeoff flap setting to M1.8/550kts, which materially improved maneuverability. It was sensitive to control input, and extremely unforgiving to pilot error.

The F-104 was designed to use the GE J79 turbojet engine, fed by side-mounted intakes with fixed inlet cones optimized for supersonic speeds. Unlike some supersonic aircraft, the F-104 did not have variable-geometry inlets. Its thrust-to-drag ratio was excellent, allowing a maximum speed well in excess of Mach 2: the top speed of the Starfighter was limited more by the aluminum airframe structure and the temperature limits of the engine compressor than by thrust or drag (which gave an aerodynamic maximum speed of Mach 2.2). Later models used uprated marks of the J79, improving both thrust and fuel consumption significantly.

In the late 1960s, Lockheed developed a more advanced version of the Starfighter, the F-104S, for use by the Italian Air Force as an all-weather interceptor. The F-104S received a NASARR R21-G with a moving-target indicator and a continuous-wave illuminator for semi-active radar homing missiles, including the AIM-7 Sparrow and Selenia Aspide. The missile-guidance avionics forced the deletion of the Starfighter's internal cannon. In the mid-1980s surviving F-104S aircraft were updated to ASA standard (Aggiornamento Sistemi d'Arma, or Weapon Systems Update), with a much improved, more compact FIAR R21G/M1 radar.

The basic armament of the F-104 was the 20mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun. The Starfighter was the first aircraft to carry the new weapon, which had a rate of fire of 6,000rpm. The cannon, mounted in the lower part of the port fuselage, was fed by a 725-round drum behind the pilot's seat. It was omitted in all the two-seat models and some single-seat versions, including reconnaissance aircraft and the early Italian F-104S; the gun bay and ammunition tank were usually replaced by additional fuel tanks. Two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles could be carried on the wingtip stations, which could also be used for fuel tanks. The F-104C and later models added a centerline pylon and two underwing pylons for bombs, rocket pods, or fuel tanks. The centerline pylon could carry a nuclear weapon; a "catamaran" launcher for two additional Sidewinders could be fitted under the forward fuselage, although the installation had minimal ground clearance and made the seeker heads of the missiles vulnerable to ground debris. The F-104S models added a pair of fuselage pylons beneath the intakes available for conventional bomb carriage. The F-104S had an additional pylon under each wing, allowing for a maximum of nine.

The F-104A initially served briefly with the USAF Air Defense Command/Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) as an interceptor, although neither its range nor armament were well-suited for that role. The first F-104A unit was operational on 20 February 1958, and after just three months of service, was grounded following a series of engine-related accidents. The aircraft were then fitted with the J79-3B engine and another three ADC units equipped with the F-104A. The USAF reduced their orders from 722 Starfighters to 155. After only one year of service these aircraft were handed over to ADC-gained units of the Air National Guard, although it should be noted that the F-104 was intended as an interim solution while the ADC waited for delivery of the Convair F-106 Delta Dart.

148,000 US National Guard and reserve personnel were ordered to active duty on 30 August 1961 in response to Soviet moves to cut off allied access to Berlin. 21,067 individuals were from the Air National Guard (ANG). On 1 November 1962, the USAF mobilized three more ANG fighter interceptor squadrons. In late October and early November, eight of the tactical fighter units flew to Europe with their 216 aircraft in "Operation Stair Step". Because of their short range, 60 F-104As were airlifted to Europe in late November. The crisis ended in the summer of 1962 and the personnel returned to the US.

In September 1958, the first USAF Tactical Air Command (TAC) unit was equipped with the F-104C. Although not an optimum platform for the theater, the F-104 did see limited service in the Vietnam War. In 1967, these TAC aircraft were transferred to the ANG.

Commencing with the Operation Rolling Thunder campaign, the Starfighter was used both in the air-superiority role and in the air support mission; although it saw little aerial combat and scored no air-to-air kills, Starfighters were successful in deterring MiG interceptors.

Starfighters rotated and/or transitioned to F-4 Phantoms in July 1967, having lost a total of 14 F-104s to all causes in Vietnam. F-104s operating in Vietnam were upgraded in service with APR-25/26 radar warning receiver equipment.

The USAF was less than satisfied with the Starfighter and procured only 296 examples in single-seat and two-seat versions. At the time, USAF doctrine placed little importance on air superiority (the fighter-to-fighter mission), and the Starfighter was deemed inadequate for either the interceptor (fighter-to-bomber) or tactical fighter-bomber role, lacking both payload capability and endurance compared to other USAF aircraft. Its US service was quickly wound down after 1965. The last F-104As in regular USAF service were re-engined with more powerful and more reliable J79-GE-19 engines in 1967. The last USAF Starfighters left active service in 1969. It continued in use with the Puerto Rico ANG until 1975.

The last use of the Starfighter in US markings was training German pilots for the Luftwaffe, with a wing of TF-104Gs and F-104Gs based at Luke AFB, AZ. Although operated in USAF markings, these aircraft (which included German-built aircraft) were owned by Germany. They continued in use until 1983.

In 2011, 4Frontiers Corporation & Starfighters, Inc began working together on a project to launch suborbital sounding rockets from F-104s flying out of Kennedy Space Center. First launches are expected to occur in 2012.

The F-104 was the first aircraft to simultaneously hold the world speed and altitude records. On 7 May 1958 Maj Howard C Johnson flying a YF-104A set a world altitude record of 91,243ft/27,811m at Edwards AFB. On 16 May 1958 Capt Walter W Irwin flying a YF-104A set a world speed record of 1,404.19mph over a 15/25 kilometer course at Edwards AFB. Flying an F-104A over NAS Point Mugu, CA, Lt William T Smith and Lt Einar Enevoldson set several time-to-climb records on 13 and 14 December 1958. On 14 December 1959 Capt "Joe" B Jordan flying an F-104C at Edwards AFB set a new world altitude record of 103,389ft/31,513m. He also set 98,000ft/30,000m time-to-climb record of 904.92 seconds. Maj Robert W Smith flying an NF-104A set an unofficial world altitude record of 118,860ft/36,230m on 15 November 1963. On 6 December 1963, he flew to another unofficial altitude record of 120,800ft/36,800m.

Source: Wikipedia

Type of Aircraft: (make/model): Lockheed F-104C Starfighter Tail Number: (S/N): s/n 56-0891 Construction:: original aircraft Location (park, airport, museum, etc.): Located at ANG, Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix, AZ inside / outside: outside Access restrictions: Located at ANG, Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix, AZ Other Information:: Not listed

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