Subject: Number 104 in the series--Lockheed F-104 Starfighter (1 of 20)

From: [email-masked]
Date: 14 Dec 93 14:12:20 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was the result of an attempt to reverse 
the trend towards ever- increasing weight and complexity in fighter 
aircraft.  It was the first operational interceptor capable of 
sustained speeds above Mach 2 and was the first aircraft ever to hold 
the World Speed and Altitude records simultaneously.  

The Starfighter had its origin in a November 1952 unsolicited proposal 
by Lockheed's Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson for a lightweight and 
relatively unsophisticated air-superiority fighter.  Weight and 
complexity would be traded for unmatched speed, altitude, and 
maneuverability.  Johnson had visited Korea in December of 1951, and 
he had talked to fighter pilots then flying in combat over North 
Korea.  He asked them what kind of fighter plane would be ideal.  
Their consensus was that the trend toward ever-increasing weight and 
complexity had gotten completely out of hand, and they would gladly 
trade in their existing fighters for a lighter, less costly fighter 
with clearly superior speed, ceiling, climb rate, and maneuverability.  
Following his return to the USA, Johnson tried to convince Lockheed 
management that they should design a new type of fighter plane, one 
that was uncomplicated, lightweight, and inexpensive but one that 
would be able to outperform any other fighter in the world.  

Even though the Air Force had no official requirement for such a 
fighter, Johnson was nevertheless authorized by Lockheed management to 
proceed with an initial private venture design.  

Johnson assembled a team of first-rate engineers at the famous Skunk 
Works.  The design froze on October 30, 1952.  The design which 
finally emerged was assigned the company designation CL-246.  The 
engine was to be the General Electric J79 engine, which was currently 
under development.  It was an outgrowth of the J73 and was known at 
that time only as the J73-GE-X24A.  The proposed J79 was to be capable 
of producing 9000 lb.s.t. dry and 15,000 lb.s.t.  with afterburning.  
It was designed to be capable of Mach 2 performance.  

After some initial consideration of swept wing and delta-wing 
configurations, a very thin, trapezoidal straight wing was finally 
selected.  It had a thickness-to-chord ratio of only 3.36 percent, a 
quarter-chord sweepback of only 18 degrees, no incidence and a razor 
sharp trailing edge.  The wing had a negative dihedral in order to 
improve roll control during high-G maneuvers and to enhance stability 
at high speeds and high altitudes.  The wing employed boundary layer 
control to increase lift and decrease landing speed.  This operated by 
blowing compressed air from the engine over the trailing edge flaps, 
reducing turbulence in the boundary layer due to flow separation thus 
reducing the stalling speed.  Full-span leading edge flaps were also 
fitted, which drooped in coordination with the trailing edge flaps 
during take-off, landing, and low-speed maneuvering.  

The straight, thin wing design was based on test results from flights 
of the Douglas X-3 Stiletto experimental aircraft.  In order to recoup 
its losses on the X-3 program, the Air Force had insisted that Douglas 
deliver the aircraft plans to Lockheed.  

The powered, all-flying horizontal tailplane was mounted atop the 
vertical fin in order to get it out of the turbulent air flowing over 
the wings and fuselage.  It was hoped that this would help to improve 
lateral stability at high speeds.  The tailplane moved as a unit and 
had no elevator.  

The rocket-like fuselage was of a high fineness ratio (i.e., highly 
tapered toward the nose).  All of the internal fuel was housed inside 
the fuselage, there being no room for fuel inside the thin wings.  

Jettisonable wingtip fuel tanks were to be carried, and the aircraft 
was supposed to be capable of supersonic performance even when these 
tanks were mounted.  Air-to-air missiles could also be carried on the 
wingtips in place of the tanks.  

Half-cones were to be incorporated in the lateral air intakes to 
reduce the speed of the air entering the engine.  These half-cones 
were supposed to reduce Mach 2 airflow to about Mach 0.7 at the 
engine's face.  

A downward-firing ejection seat system was selected, since it was 
feared that conventional upward ejection would be highly dangerous if 
not impossible at the high speeds at which the CL-246 would be 
operating.  

Since the advanced J79 would not be available for several years, the 
afterburning Wright J65-W-7 was selected as an interim propulsion 
system.  

On October 31, 1952, Johnson presented the CL-246 proposal to Lockheed 
management.  They were enthusiastic, and gave him the go-ahead to 
present it to the Air Force.  Even though the USAF did not have a 
standing requirement for such a fighter, the USAF thought sufficiently 
highly of the general idea that they issued a requirement in December 
1952 for a lightweight air-superiority fighter to replace the North 
American F-100 in the Tactical Air Command beginning in 1956.  
However, in order to be completely fair, the USAF had to request 
competitive bids from the aviation industry.  

In response to the request for proposals, Republic submitted its Model 
AP-55, based on its XF-91 Thunderceptor with a solid rounded nose and 
NASA-developed flush-type engine air intakes.  North American 
submitted its Model NA-212, which was an advanced version of the Super 
Sabre which eventually emerged as the F-107.  Northrop submitted its 
Model N-102 Fang, a proposal for a J79-powered aircraft fed by a 
ventral, bifurcated air intake.  

Lockheed's head start was just too much for the competitors to 
overcome, and in January of 1953, Lockheed's proposal was selected.  
On March 12, 1953 a letter contract for two prototypes was issued 
under Weapon System 303A (WS-303A).  The designation XF-104 was 
assigned.  Lockheed assigned the aircraft the company designation of 
Model 083-92-01.  

Under the guidance of Clarence R. "Kelly" Johnson and project 
engineer Bill Ralston, the project rapidly moved ahead.  The mockup 
was inspected on April 30, 1953, and at that time it was decided to 
substitute a single General Electric Vulcan Gatling-type cannon (then 
under development and known as the T-171) in place of the two 30-mm 
cannon originally proposed.  The T-171 (later M61) cannon was to be 
mounted on the left side of the fuselage and was projected to be 
capable of firing up to 6000 rounds per minute.  The cannon was to be 
fed by a 725-round drum of ammunition.  

The first prototypes were to be powered by a non-afterburning Wright 
J65 turbojet (license-built Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire), but 
production aircraft were to be powered by a single afterburning Wright 
J65.  The J65 would serve as the interim powerplant until the more 
advanced J79 could be ready.  

Construction of the first prototype XF-104 began in the summer of 1953 
at Lockheed's Burbank, California factory.  This aircraft initially 
was powered by a non-afterburning Buick-built Wright J65-B-3 turbojet.  
Construction of the second prototype--the armament test bed--began in 
the autumn of 1953, but work on this aircraft proceeded at a slower 
pace in case revisions were needed.  The half-cones were omitted from 
the air intakes, since the J65-powered aircraft was incapable of 
Mach-2 performance.  

The first XF-104 (53-7786) was ready in early 1954, and was trucked 
out to Edwards AFB in high secrecy during the night of February 24-25.  
Veteran Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier was to do the initial testing.  
Taxiing runs began on February 27, 1954.  On February 28, 1954, the 
XF-104 made an scheduled short hop of about five feet off the ground 
during a high speed taxiing run.  Its first official flight took place 
on March 4, 1954.  During that flight, the landing gear would not 
retract.  After a low-speed flight of about 20 minutes, Tony LeVier 
landed.  Some adjustments were made, and LeVier took off again, but 
the landing gear still would not retract.  The problem turned out to 
be low pressure in the hydraulic system, which was fairly easy to 
correct.  However, inclement weather kept the XF-104 on the ground 
until March 26, when flights three and four were carried out with the 
landing gear retracting adequately.  

The XF-104's original yaw damper was ineffective, allowing the nose to 
wander left and right.  This problem was corrected by revising the 
rudder-centering device.  

The XF-104 could not exceed the speed of sound in level flight when 
powered by the nonafterburning J65-B-3 turbojet.  However, Mach 1 
could be easily exceeded during a slight descent, and the transition 
to supersonic speed was quite smooth.  

In July of 1954, the J65-B-3 non-afterburning engine was replaced by 
the long-awaited afterburning J65-W-7 turbojet rated at 7800 lb.s.t.  
dry and 10,200 lb.s.t. with afterburner.  In that same month, 17 more 
service test aircraft were ordered.  They were also to be powered by 
the J65-W-7.  

With the afterburning engine installed, the performance of the XF-104 
was markedly improved.  Maximum level speed was Mach 1.49 at 41,000 
feet, and an altitude of 55,000 feet could be attained in a zoom 
climb.  Mach 1.6 could be attained in a dive.  

The second prototype (53-7787) flew on October 5, 1954.  It was fitted 
with the afterburning J65 from the start.  Since it was to be the 
armament test bed, it was fitted with the 20-mm Vulcan cannon and was 
equipped with an AN/ASG-14T-1 fire control system.  Initial aerial 
firing tests with the Vulcan cannon were successful, but on December 
17, there was an explosion during a firing burst, and the J65 engine 
started to run rough.  Test pilot Tony LeVier immediately shut down 
his engine and glided back to make a successful dead-stick landing at 
Rogers Dry Lake.  An investigation later showed that one of the 20-mm 
cannon rounds had exploded in the breech, blowing the bolt out the 
rear of the gun and into the forward fuselage fuel cell.  Jet fuel 
gushed into the gun bay, and leaked out of the gun bay door joints and 
into the left engine air intake.  The engine immediately flooded with 
fuel, choking it to death.  Tony LeVier was lucky to be alive.  

XF-104 number one achieved a top speed of Mach 1.79 at 60,000 feet on 
March 15, 1955.  Lockheed test pilot J. Ray Goudey was at the controls. 
This was the highest speed achieved by either of the XF-104 
prototypes.  

The second prototype (53-7787) was lost on April 14, 1955 when test 
pilot Herman R. "Fish" Salmon was forced to eject during gun-firing 
trials at 50,000 feet.  The gun malfunctioned during a test firing, 
and severe vibrations began to build up which knocked loose the 
ejection hatch on the belly of the plane.  Cabin pressure was 
immediately lost, and Salmon's pressure suit pumped up and covered his 
face so that he could not see.  Recalling Tony LeVier's harrowing 
experience with the exploding cannon shell the previous December, 
Salmon believed that the same thing had happened to him and that he 
had no option but to eject.  This he did.  He later found out that he 
could have saved 53-7787 by simply bringing it down to a lower 
altitude and waiting for his pressure suit to deflate.  

With the loss of the armament testbed, Lockheed engineers were forced 
to find an alternative.  Armament trials were continued on a modified 
Lockheed F-94C Starfire.  

The first XF-104 was accepted by the USAF in November of 1955.  XF-104 
number 1 was lost in a crash on July 11, 1957, when it developed an 
uncontrollable tail flutter while flying chase for F-104A flight 
tests.  The entire tail group was ripped from the airframe, and 
Lockheed test pilot Bill Park was forced to eject.  

Consequently, no XF-104 prototype survives today.  

53-7786/7787 	Lockheed XF-104 Starfighter 

Sources:

    The World's Great Interceptor Aircraft, Gallery Books, 1989.

    Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Steve Pace, Motorbooks International, 
    1992.

    Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913, Rene J. Francillon, Naval Institute
    Press, 1987.

    The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.

    The World's Fighting Planes, William Green, Doubleday 1968.

    American Combat Planes, Ray Wagner, Third Enlarged Edition, Doubleday,
    1982.

Joe Baugher		AT&T Bell Laboratories   	
2000 North Naperville Road      Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033