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CaptainCrunch · 01-11-2025, 08:21 PM

F-104 Star Fighter – The Aluminum Rocket

What happens when you design a jet that is the opposite of the normal design logic at the time, is so intriguing that its mass adopted by 15 air forces in the world and kills more pilots than an enemy air force could ever hope to do.
You get the F-104 Starfighter, a short, winged rocket that at times made the argument that it couldn’t possibly fly and defied every conventional understanding of fighter design at the time.

Origins
A part of the United States Airforce infamous Century series that emphasized advanced performance and avionics as well as other experimental characteristics.

The F-100 Super Sabre was the first US fighter/bomber that could exceed the speed of sound in level flight. The CF-101 Voodo exceeded 1,000 mph, the F-102 Delta Dagger was designed using the transonic area rule which was a design to reduce drag between Mach .75 and 1.2, the F-104 was the first combat aircraft capable of Mach 2 flight. All the Century fighters could carry nuclear air to air missiles to destroy Soviet Bombers.

Development

The F-104 was the brainchild of Clarence L Johnson, the VP of Engineering and research at Lockheed’s Skunk Works, their advanced Development program which was responsible some of the most advanced Military aircraft that the world has ever seen from the P-38 Lightning, to the SR-71 to the F-35.

In 1951 Johnson went on a fact-finding mission in Korea visiting US Air Force bases to interview pilots about what they wanted in a fighter craft. During the War in Korea the American’s got a nasty surprise when the Soviet’s released Mig 15 which outclassed the F-86 Sabre, a severely over engineered fighter. The Pilots wanted a small simple high-performance high-speed aircraft, with high the ability to operate at high altitudes.

Johnson returned the States and started working on the design; after reviewing over 100 designs, he settled a small simple craft that was built around a extremely powerful General Electric General Electric J79 Turbo Jet. The F-104 was built around a different design philosophy. They basically wrapped an aircraft around the engine instead of designing a plane and dropping an engine in it.

The F-104 came through a competition that involved 3 additional aircraft and became the United States Airforce’s next generation light fighter bomber.
However, there was a problem, the J-79 wasn’t ready, and two prototypes were built using the smaller Wright J-65 engine. The Prototype first attempted to take to the air on Feb 28, 1954, but the flight lasted about 5 feet, then on March 4th its official first test flight only lasted 21 minutes due to Landing gear problems. Several weeks later the second prototype was destroyed due to a gun firing trial when the bottom ejection hatch blew out causing the pilot to eject, it almost felt like a precursor to things to come. The remaining prototype was accepted by the USAF.

With the completion of the J-79 engine the X-104 went through a significant design change as the body was lengthened to house the engine, and the air intakes were widened, and the frame was strengthened. A further 16 aircraft were ordered, but one of the prototype aircraft lost control and tumbled forcing the pilot to eject. Because of this an additional bottom mounted fin was added to give greater stability at supersonic speeds.

As was the case with the century series planes, they all attempted to make a generational leap forward in some way, some successfully like the F-3H Demon which was literally a F-101 enhanced Voodoo which was an attempt to create a modular multirole fighter and eventually evolved to become the F-4 Phantom II, Or the F-102 Delta Dagger which was met to be the ultimate Soviet Bomber Interceptor. Or the F-104 which was met to be a light high altitude multi-role fighter that could travel at Mach Jesus Christ. The problem with making these generational leaps is that you’re making a lot of theoretical guesses and safety goes out the window.

Design and Appearance

With the F-104, when you take a walk around it, it’s a major departure from the fighter jets of the time. For one thing it’s an extremely long and streamlined shape to house its huge engine. It had stubby thin wings with a leading edge that was so sharp that when it was in maintenance it used what could be described as a skate guard to protect aircrewmen from taking their heads off if they forgot to duck under the wing. Instead of the traditional rear fin and rudder configuration, it had a tail assembly that more resembled what you see on a private jet to keep the fin elevators out of the way of the high-speed air going over the trapezoid wings. With most fighters and bombers, the wings are used for fuel storage as well as you know, flying. But with the F-104 all the fuel was stored in the body of the jet. The wings are not swept or delta winged but based on a trapezoid which at the time was the considered to be the best shape for high altitude Super sonic flight. The Wings also canted down at a 10-degree angle to improve roll control during high-speed maneuvering.

If you looked under the cockpit you’d see a unique hatch, in early F-104’s they had a downwards ejecting pilots’ seat because it felt that using a traditional upward ejecting system would lead to the pilot being sliced like sushi as it was iffy if the pilot would be able to clear the T-tail. This downward ejection concept created a problem at low altitude ejections which would be equivalent to a person spreading strawberry jam on toast. Eventually the F-104 was updated with an upwards ejection seat featuring the Mk-7 ejection seats.

Performance

When you put all this together, you got a fighter that would set multiple records including speed at 1404 mph, altitude at 103,000 feet and rate of climb. However, there was a trade off as the F-104 was a notoriously poor turner for a fighter and could only handle a 7 G turn. A Mig 25 could pull up to 8.5 g’s and F-4 could pull 9 g’s. so, it was likely that the F-104 was going to lose any kind of turning fight, and because the F-104 was equipped with a short to medium range Aim-9 sidewinder and a M-61 canon, it was at a disadvantage.

Avionics and Sensors

The initial F-104’s used a basic targeting radar that had a range up to 22 miles which suited the use of the Aim-9 sidewinder. The issues were that it was useless at any altitude below 3000 feet as it couldn’t defeat ground clutter returns. While the fire radar could reach out to 22 miles, it could also only effectively track enemies within 10 miles, and as we talked about before this is knife fighting range and the F-104 was not a great turning dog fighter.
Later, the export versions of the F-104 got more effective radars with longer ranges and the ability to look down and fire down which worked well when the F-104 was upgraded to fire the Aim-7 sparrow, they were also equipped with a ground strike fire control system.

Going Into Production

In the late 1950’s at the early stages of the cold war, the United States Airforce was caught in a web of every changing priority as it felts like new jet designs were coming out around the world daily and the mission requirements continually changed and the F-104 became a victim of that.

Originally designed for air superiority, the mission changed as the Soviet Union was perceived to be winning the Bomber gap. In the late 1950’s the Soviets were producing many M-3 Bisons a medium range high speed jet bomber, the Soviets were also pumping out huge numbers of the Tu-95 Bear quad engine turbo prop long range bomber which is still in service today. The Soviets were also pumping out the Tu-16 Badger.

Because of this bomber gap the mission changed the Airforce was suddenly more interested in a high-speed high-altitude Interceptors but the F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart were taking a long time to develop, so the F-104 was pushed into a job that it was poorly suited to due to its short range missiles and fire control system.

Because of the new requirement for interceptors over Air Superiority and issues with the F-104 engines that led to the grounding of the Plane, the United States started losing interest in their mass purchase of the F-104, they reduced their order from about 720 planes down to about 170 fighters with the US inventory eventually expanding to about 290 fighters. But the F-104 production run would eventually become extremely prodigious due to the export market for a relatedly inexpensive and simple light fighter plane with 2500 Star Fighters eventually being built. After a 10-year service life, the F-104 was deemed as inadequate as a Air Superiority Fighter and as an interceptor and in 1969 the last F-104 was retired by the United States Airforce.

01-11-2025, 08:21 PM	#272
CaptainCrunch Norm! Join Date: Jun 2002 Exp:	F-104 Star Fighter – The Aluminum Rocket What happens when you design a jet that is the opposite of the normal design logic at the time, is so intriguing that its mass adopted by 15 air forces in the world and kills more pilots than an enemy air force could ever hope to do. You get the F-104 Starfighter, a short, winged rocket that at times made the argument that it couldn’t possibly fly and defied every conventional understanding of fighter design at the time. Origins A part of the United States Airforce infamous Century series that emphasized advanced performance and avionics as well as other experimental characteristics. The F-100 Super Sabre was the first US fighter/bomber that could exceed the speed of sound in level flight. The CF-101 Voodo exceeded 1,000 mph, the F-102 Delta Dagger was designed using the transonic area rule which was a design to reduce drag between Mach .75 and 1.2, the F-104 was the first combat aircraft capable of Mach 2 flight. All the Century fighters could carry nuclear air to air missiles to destroy Soviet Bombers. Development The F-104 was the brainchild of Clarence L Johnson, the VP of Engineering and research at Lockheed’s Skunk Works, their advanced Development program which was responsible some of the most advanced Military aircraft that the world has ever seen from the P-38 Lightning, to the SR-71 to the F-35. In 1951 Johnson went on a fact-finding mission in Korea visiting US Air Force bases to interview pilots about what they wanted in a fighter craft. During the War in Korea the American’s got a nasty surprise when the Soviet’s released Mig 15 which outclassed the F-86 Sabre, a severely over engineered fighter. The Pilots wanted a small simple high-performance high-speed aircraft, with high the ability to operate at high altitudes. Johnson returned the States and started working on the design; after reviewing over 100 designs, he settled a small simple craft that was built around a extremely powerful General Electric General Electric J79 Turbo Jet. The F-104 was built around a different design philosophy. They basically wrapped an aircraft around the engine instead of designing a plane and dropping an engine in it. The F-104 came through a competition that involved 3 additional aircraft and became the United States Airforce’s next generation light fighter bomber. However, there was a problem, the J-79 wasn’t ready, and two prototypes were built using the smaller Wright J-65 engine. The Prototype first attempted to take to the air on Feb 28, 1954, but the flight lasted about 5 feet, then on March 4th its official first test flight only lasted 21 minutes due to Landing gear problems. Several weeks later the second prototype was destroyed due to a gun firing trial when the bottom ejection hatch blew out causing the pilot to eject, it almost felt like a precursor to things to come. The remaining prototype was accepted by the USAF. With the completion of the J-79 engine the X-104 went through a significant design change as the body was lengthened to house the engine, and the air intakes were widened, and the frame was strengthened. A further 16 aircraft were ordered, but one of the prototype aircraft lost control and tumbled forcing the pilot to eject. Because of this an additional bottom mounted fin was added to give greater stability at supersonic speeds. As was the case with the century series planes, they all attempted to make a generational leap forward in some way, some successfully like the F-3H Demon which was literally a F-101 enhanced Voodoo which was an attempt to create a modular multirole fighter and eventually evolved to become the F-4 Phantom II, Or the F-102 Delta Dagger which was met to be the ultimate Soviet Bomber Interceptor. Or the F-104 which was met to be a light high altitude multi-role fighter that could travel at Mach Jesus Christ. The problem with making these generational leaps is that you’re making a lot of theoretical guesses and safety goes out the window. Design and Appearance With the F-104, when you take a walk around it, it’s a major departure from the fighter jets of the time. For one thing it’s an extremely long and streamlined shape to house its huge engine. It had stubby thin wings with a leading edge that was so sharp that when it was in maintenance it used what could be described as a skate guard to protect aircrewmen from taking their heads off if they forgot to duck under the wing. Instead of the traditional rear fin and rudder configuration, it had a tail assembly that more resembled what you see on a private jet to keep the fin elevators out of the way of the high-speed air going over the trapezoid wings. With most fighters and bombers, the wings are used for fuel storage as well as you know, flying. But with the F-104 all the fuel was stored in the body of the jet. The wings are not swept or delta winged but based on a trapezoid which at the time was the considered to be the best shape for high altitude Super sonic flight. The Wings also canted down at a 10-degree angle to improve roll control during high-speed maneuvering. If you looked under the cockpit you’d see a unique hatch, in early F-104’s they had a downwards ejecting pilots’ seat because it felt that using a traditional upward ejecting system would lead to the pilot being sliced like sushi as it was iffy if the pilot would be able to clear the T-tail. This downward ejection concept created a problem at low altitude ejections which would be equivalent to a person spreading strawberry jam on toast. Eventually the F-104 was updated with an upwards ejection seat featuring the Mk-7 ejection seats. Performance When you put all this together, you got a fighter that would set multiple records including speed at 1404 mph, altitude at 103,000 feet and rate of climb. However, there was a trade off as the F-104 was a notoriously poor turner for a fighter and could only handle a 7 G turn. A Mig 25 could pull up to 8.5 g’s and F-4 could pull 9 g’s. so, it was likely that the F-104 was going to lose any kind of turning fight, and because the F-104 was equipped with a short to medium range Aim-9 sidewinder and a M-61 canon, it was at a disadvantage. Avionics and Sensors The initial F-104’s used a basic targeting radar that had a range up to 22 miles which suited the use of the Aim-9 sidewinder. The issues were that it was useless at any altitude below 3000 feet as it couldn’t defeat ground clutter returns. While the fire radar could reach out to 22 miles, it could also only effectively track enemies within 10 miles, and as we talked about before this is knife fighting range and the F-104 was not a great turning dog fighter. Later, the export versions of the F-104 got more effective radars with longer ranges and the ability to look down and fire down which worked well when the F-104 was upgraded to fire the Aim-7 sparrow, they were also equipped with a ground strike fire control system. Going Into Production In the late 1950’s at the early stages of the cold war, the United States Airforce was caught in a web of every changing priority as it felts like new jet designs were coming out around the world daily and the mission requirements continually changed and the F-104 became a victim of that. Originally designed for air superiority, the mission changed as the Soviet Union was perceived to be winning the Bomber gap. In the late 1950’s the Soviets were producing many M-3 Bisons a medium range high speed jet bomber, the Soviets were also pumping out huge numbers of the Tu-95 Bear quad engine turbo prop long range bomber which is still in service today. The Soviets were also pumping out the Tu-16 Badger. Because of this bomber gap the mission changed the Airforce was suddenly more interested in a high-speed high-altitude Interceptors but the F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart were taking a long time to develop, so the F-104 was pushed into a job that it was poorly suited to due to its short range missiles and fire control system. Because of the new requirement for interceptors over Air Superiority and issues with the F-104 engines that led to the grounding of the Plane, the United States started losing interest in their mass purchase of the F-104, they reduced their order from about 720 planes down to about 170 fighters with the US inventory eventually expanding to about 290 fighters. But the F-104 production run would eventually become extremely prodigious due to the export market for a relatedly inexpensive and simple light fighter plane with 2500 Star Fighters eventually being built. After a 10-year service life, the F-104 was deemed as inadequate as a Air Superiority Fighter and as an interceptor and in 1969 the last F-104 was retired by the United States Airforce. __________________ My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!