Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

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.[18][19] The second prototype was destroyed several weeks later during gun-firing trials when the hatch to the ejector seat blew out, depressurizing the cockpit and causing the pilot to eject in the mistaken belief that a cannon mishap had crippled the aircraft.[26] In response to a 1957 German Air Staff Paper asking for a single aircraft to fulfill its fighter, fighter-bomber, and reconnaissance mission requirements,[27] Lockheed redesigned the entire airframe, including 96 new forgings, additional skin panels, and reinforced landing gear with larger tires and improved brakes.[31][32] Canada, who had also chosen the Starfighter to fulfill its NATO obligations, delivered 121 sets of wings, aft fuselages, and tail assemblies built by Canadair to Europe while it constructed 200 CF-104s with Orenda-built engines for the Royal Canadian Air Force.Some of the modifications that were proposed during this time, mainly from the Joint Test Force at Edwards AFB in California, were the installation of an arrester hook, a standby attitude indicator, and the emergency engine nozzle closure system.[40] The thinness of the wings required fuel tanks and landing gear to be placed in the fuselage, and the hydraulic cylinders driving the ailerons were limited to 1-inch (25 mm) thickness to fit.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, rolling the aircraft in the opposite direction of rudder input.[52] The cannon was omitted in all the two-seat models and some single-seat versions including reconnaissance aircraft, with the gun bay and ammunition drum typically replaced by additional fuel tanks.According to Colonel Howard "Scrappy" Johnson, one of the F-104 pilots deployed to Taiwan, the Starfighters' presence was so the PLAAF would "track them on their radar screens ... and sit back and scratch their head in awe.The F-104 flew a number of supersonic runs between Taiwan and mainland China at speeds up to Mach 2 as an air-superiority demonstration, and though there were no direct enemy engagements prior to withdrawal after a ceasefire was agreed on 6 October, the Starfighter provided a significant deterrent effect.The crisis ended in the summer of 1962 and the ANG personnel returned to the United States, but the F-104's solid performance helped convince the ADC to recall some F-104s back into active USAF service the following year.On 19 April 1965 the 476th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) of the 479th TFW arrived at Da Nang AB to help protect US F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bombers against MiG-17s and especially MiG-21s that were beginning to be flown by the Vietnamese People's Air Force (VPAF).During Operation Power Pack, USAF F-104s were deployed to Ramey Air Force Base to protect the American supply line against potential Soviet-supplied Cuban MiGs.[102] In the opening rounds of the war on 1 September, Flight Lt. Farooq Umar on the orders of PAF's C-in-C "Air Marshal Nur Khan", executed two sonic booms in his F-104 over the enemy airbase at Amritsar.[104][105] On 3 September 1965, two Griffin F-104As flown by Flying Officer Abbas Mirza and Flight Lieutenant Hakimullah intercepted 6 IAF Folland Gnats over Akhnur which had attacked a lone F-86 Sabre.While the Sabre managed to return to base despite sustaining heavy damage, the Starfighters made supersonic passes near the Indian Gnats which resultantly spread panic amongst the IAF pilots.[115] On 4 December 1971, Squadron leaders Amanullah and Rashid Bhatti flying F-104As again struck the IAF's Amritsar radar without any significant results due to heavy Anti-Aircraft fire.[118][119] The second F-104 loss occurred several days later on 17 December when a pair of Jordanian loaned Starfighters on Combat Air Patrol near Hyderabad intercepted 2 Mig-21s which had intruded Pakistani airspace.In preparation for the X-15 test program of the late 1950s, it was fitted with the reaction control system (RCS) consisting of hydrogen peroxide-powered thrusters mounted in the aircraft's nose and wingtips.On 2 October of that year, trying to set a new low-altitude 3 km (1.9 mi) speed record, Greenamyer averaged 1,010 miles per hour (1,630 km/h) at Mud Lake near Tonopah, Nevada.Climb and cruise performance were outstanding; occasionally a "slow" light would illuminate on the instrument panel at around Mach 2 to indicate that the engine compressor was nearing its limiting temperature and the pilot needed to throttle back.[182] To combat this, an automatic pitch control (APC) was added, which initiated corrective action at the proper time to prevent reaching an angle of attack high enough to cause pitch-up under any operating condition.It was discovered that large and sudden temperature changes (e.g., from being parked in the sun prior to becoming airborne) were falsely causing the engine stator blades to close and choke the compressor.Furthermore, the installation of additional avionic equipment in the F-104G version, such as the inertial navigation system, added distraction for the pilot, as well as extra weight that further hampered the flying capabilities of the plane.In contemporary West German magazine articles highlighting the Starfighter safety problems, the aircraft was portrayed as "overburdened" with technology, which was considered a latent overstrain on the aircrews.Original fatigue calculations had not taken into account the high number of g-force loading cycles that the F-104 fleet was experiencing, and many airframes were returned to the depot for wing replacement or outright retirement.[195] Erich Hartmann, the world's top-scoring fighter ace, commanded one of West Germany's first post-war jet-fighter-equipped wings[196] and deemed the F-104 to be an unsafe aircraft with poor handling characteristics for aerial combat.[208] Canada's accident rate with the F-104 ultimately exceeded 46% (110 of 238) over its 25-year service history,[209] though the Canadian jets tended to be flown for a greater number of hours than those of other air forces (three times that of the German F-104s, for example).By comparison, the cumulative destroyed rates for the other Century Series aircraft in USAF service over the same time period were 16.2 for the North American F-100 Super Sabre, 9.7 for the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, 15.6 for the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, and 7.3 for the Convair F-106 Delta Dart.[214] By comparison, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) experienced an overall loss rate of 11.96 per 100,000 flying hours with the Dassault Mirage III, losing 40 of 116 aircraft to accidents over its 25-year career from 1965 to 1989.