Lockheed XF - 104 The Lockheed XF - 104 was a single - engine , high - performance , supersonic interceptor prototype for a United States Air Force ( USAF ) series of lightweight and simple fighters . Only two aircraft were built , one aircraft was used primarily for aerodynamic research and the other served as an armament testbed . Both prototypes were destroyed in accidents during testing . The XF - 104 was the forerunner of over 2 , 500 Lockheed F - 104 Starfighter s . During the Korean War , USAF fighter pilots were outclassed by MiG - equipped Soviet pilots . Lockheed engineers , led by Kelly Johnson , designed and submitted a novel design to the Air Force . The design was notable for its sleekness , particularly its thin wings and missile - shaped fuselage , as well as a novel pilot ejection system . The XF - 104 ' s maiden flight came in February 1954 . The flight test program encountered problems , some of which were resolved ; however , the XF - 104 performance proved better than estimates . Both prototypes were lost through accidents . Nevertheless , the USAF ordered 17 service - test F - 104s . Internationally , the production F - 104 Starfighters proved popular , serving as front - line fighters with a number of countries . Development . Clarence L . " Kelly " Johnson , chief engineer at Lockheed ' s Skunk Works , visited Korea in December 1951 and talked to fighter pilots about what sort of aircraft they wanted . At the time U . S . Air Force pilots were confronting the MiG - 15 " Fagot " in their F - 86 Sabre s , and many of the 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 . One pilot in particular , Colonel Gabby Gabreski was quoted as saying ; " I ' d rather sight with a piece of chewing gum stuck on the windscreen " and told Johnson that radar " was a waste of time " . On his return to the U . S . , Johnson immediately started the design of just such an aircraft realising that an official requirement would soon be published . In March 1952 his team was assembled , and they sketched several different aircraft proposals , ranging from small designs at 8 , 000 lb ( 3 . 6 t ) , to fairly large ones at 50 , 000 lb ( 23 t ) . The L - 246 as the design became known remained essentially identical to the " Model L - 083 Starfighter " as eventually delivered . The design was presented to the Air Force in November 1952 , who were interested enough to create a new proposal , inviting several companies to participate . Three additional designs were received : 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 , a new General Electric J79 - powered design . Although all were interesting , Lockheed had an insurmountable lead and was granted a development contract in March 1953 . Test data from the earlier Lockheed X - 7 unmanned ramjet / rocket program proved invaluable for aerodynamic research since the XF - 104 would share the X - 7 ' s wing and tail planform and airfoil sections . Experience gained from the Douglas X - 3 Stiletto was also used in the design phase of the XF - 104 . Over 400 surplus instrumented artillery rockets were launched to test various airfoils and tail designs ; from which the camera film and telemetry were recovered by parachute . Work progressed quickly , with a wooden mock - up ready for inspection at the end of April , and work started on two prototypes late in May . At the time , the J79 engine was not ready ; so , both prototypes were designed to use the Wright J65 engine instead , a licensed built version of the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire . Construction of the first prototype XF - 104 ( US serial number " 53 - 7786 " , Buzz number FG - 786 ) began in summer 1953 at Lockheed ' s Burbank , California factory . This aircraft was powered by a non - afterburning Buick - built Wright J65 - B - 3 turbojet . The first prototype was completed by early 1954 , and started flying in March . The total time from award of the contract to first flight was only one year , a very short time even then , and unheard of today , when ten to 15 years is more typical . Construction of the second prototype ( s / n " 53 - 7787 " ) proceeded at a slower pace . Design . 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 emphasis was on minimizing drag and mass . The XF - 104 had a radical wing design . Most jet fighters of the period ( and to this day ) 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 , trapezoid al wing . The low - aspect ratio wing was extremely thin , with a thickness - to - chord ratio of only 3 . 4 % . The leading edges of the wing were so thin ( 0 . 016 in / 0 . 41 mm ) and so sharp that they presented a hazard to ground crews , and protective guards had to be installed during ground operations . The thinness of the wings meant that fuel tanks and landing gear had to be contained in the fuselage . The hydraulic actuators driving the ailerons were only one inch ( 25 mm ) thick to fit into the available space and were known as Piccolo actuators because of their resemblance to this musical instrument . The wings had electrically driven leading and trailing edge flaps to increase lift at low speed . The XF - 104 did not feature the Boundary Layer Control System of the production aircraft . After extensive wind tunnel testing , the stabilator was mounted at the top of the fin for optimum stability and control about the pitch axis . Because the vertical tail 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 angled downward to give 10° anhedral . The rudder was manually operated and supplemented by a small yaw damper surface mounted at the bottom of the fin . The fuselage of the XF - 104 had a high fineness ratio , i . e . , tapering sharply towards the nose , and a small frontal area of . The fuselage was tightly packed , containing the cockpit , avionics , cannon , all internal fuel , landing gear , and engine . The air intakes , designed by Ben Rich , were of fixed geometry without inlet cones , since the J65 - powered aircraft was incapable of Mach 2 performance . They were similar to those of the F - 94 Starfire , being mounted slightly away from the fuselage , with an inner splitter plate for the boundary layer bleed air . The combination of these features provided extremely low drag except at high angle of attack , at which point induced drag became very high . The XF - 104 featured an unusual downward - ejecting Stanley B seat . It was feared that contemporary ejection seat designs would not have enough explosive power to clear the high " T " tail assembly . In the event of the seat not firing , it was possible to manually release the lower fuselage hatch and then exit the aircraft via gravity . The F - 104 series aircraft would later convert to upward - ejecting seats but the fuselage hatch was retained as a useful maintenance feature . Operational history . Testing and evaluation . The first XF - 104 ( Lockheed 083 - 1001 , s / n " 53 - 7786 " ) was transported to Edwards AFB amidst high secrecy during the night of 24 – 25 February where Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier was to do the initial testing . On 28 February 1954 , the XF - 104 made a planned hop of about five ft off the ground during a high - speed taxi , but its first official flight took place on 4 March 1954 . During that flight , the landing gear did not retract , and LeVier landed after a low - speed flight of about 20 minutes . Adjustments and further flights discovered that the problem was low pressure in the hydraulic system . Bad weather kept the XF - 104 on the ground until 26 March when further flights were carried out with the landing gear retracting normally . The second prototype ( Lockheed 083 - 1002 , s / n " 53 - 7787 " ) , fitted with the afterburning J65 from the start , first flew on 5 October 1954 . Since it was to be the armament test bed , it was fitted with the 20 mm ( . 79 in ) M61 Vulcan cannon and was equipped with an AN / ASG - 14T - 1 fire control system . XF - 104 # 2 achieved a top speed of Mach 1 . 79 at on 25 March 1955 , piloted by Lockheed test pilot J . Ray Goudey . This was the highest speed achieved by the XF - 104 . XF - 104 # 1 was subsonic in level flight when powered by the non - afterburning J65 , but Mach 1 could be easily exceeded during a slight descent . In July 1954 , the J65 - B - 3 was replaced by the afterburning J65 - W - 7 turbojet . With this engine installed , the performance of the XF - 104 was greatly improved . Maximum level speed was Mach 1 . 49 at , and an altitude of could be attained in a zoom climb , while Mach 1 . 6 could be attained in a dive . The first XF - 104 was accepted by the USAF in November 1955 . Initial aerial firing tests with the Vulcan cannon on the second aircraft were successful , but on 17 December , there was an explosion during a firing burst and the J65 engine suffered severe compressor stall s . Tony LeVier immediately shut down the engine and glided back to make a successful deadstick 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 through the structure into the forward fuselage fuel cell . Jet fuel had run into the gun bay , and leaked out of the compartment door seals and into the left engine air intake . The engine immediately flooded with fuel , causing the compressor stalls . Crashes . XF - 104 " 53 - 7786 " was lost in a crash on 11 July 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 . Vertical fin flutter was a known problem and the aircraft had been limited to speeds of no more than Mach 0 . 95 at the time of the accident . Tony LeVier had attempted to have the aircraft removed from flight status and placed in a museum , arguing that its performance was not suitable for chase duties . XF - 104 " 53 - 7787 " was lost on 14 April 1955 after accumulating over 1 , 000 flying hours when test pilot Herman Salmon was forced to eject during gun firing trials at . The gun malfunctioned during a test firing , and severe vibrations began to build up which knocked loose the ejection hatch below the cockpit . Cabin pressure was lost with Salmon ' s pressure suit inflating and covering his face so that he could not see . Recalling 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 . 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 , and armament trials were continued on a modified Lockheed F - 94C Starfire . The two XF - 104s amassed an approximate total of 250 flight hours . Testing conclusions . Flight testing proved that performance estimates were accurate and that even when fitted with the low powered J65 engine , the XF - 104 flew faster than the other Century Series fighters being developed at the time . The XF - 104 ' s ceiling at was higher than predicted , and it exceeded estimated speed and drag figures by two to three percent . It was noted however that the low thrust of the J65 engine did not enable the full performance potential of the type to be realized . A number of minor problems surfaced , but were readily fixed . The yaw damper of the XF - 104 was found to be ineffective and the rudder did not positively center , these problems were corrected by revising the rudder control system . The unpowered rudder did not provide adequate directional control at high air speeds ( remedied by using hydraulic power on all subsequent versions of the F - 104 ) and some concern was expressed over poor subsonic maneuverability at higher altitudes . During a later interview , Kelly Johnson was asked about his opinion on the aircraft , " Did it come up to my designs ? In terms of performance , yes . In terms of engine , we went through a great many engine problems , not with the J65s but with the J79s . " For his part in designing the F - 104 airframe , Johnson was jointly awarded the Collier Trophy in 1958 , sharing the honor with General Electric ( engine ) and the U . S . Air Force ( Flight Records ) . F - 104 production . Official approval of the XF - 104 design led to a contract for 17 YF - 104A service test aircraft and a production run of over 2 , 500 aircraft built both in the United States and under license worldwide . Visible changes from the XF - 104 to production versions of the Starfighter include a longer fuselage ( to accommodate the J79 engine and extra internal fuel ) and a forward - retracting nose landing gear ( except two - seat versions ) to increase clearance for the downward - ejecting seat . A ventral fin for increased stability was added during the YF - 104A test program . Inlet shock cones and a fuselage spine fairing between the canopy and fin that housed fuel piping were further added features . Production aircraft would also feature a redesigned fin structure using stainless steel spars to eliminate the flutter problem . Since the internal fuel capacity was low limiting the useful range of the aircraft , extra capacity was provided on later versions by lengthening the forward fuselage .