The San Bernardino County Sun; San Bernardino, California; Wednesday, April 18, 1956; Page 20.

ULTRASONIC COMBAT PLANE TRIES WINGS

U.S. Air Force’s fastest combat plane, the ultrasonic XF104 Starfighter built by Lockheed, flashes over AF Jet Center in Palmdale. Newsmen got first look at plane Monday. (AP wirephoto)

'World's Fastest' Fighter Unveiled

PALMDALE—The Lockheed F104T [sic] Starfighter, a missile with a man in it, has flown more than 1,000 miles an hour.

Several hundred persons, including the largest gathering of news writers of its kind on record, witnessed the achievement Monday. It was the fastest an aircraft ever has flown before a sizable audience.

It was also the first public showing of this dazzling new craft which Gen. Nathan F. Twining, Air Force chief of staff, has called “the fastest and highest flying fighter anywhere in the sky."

The exact speed remained a secret. Actually two models were flown—the original XF104, which was powered by a Curtiss-Wright J65 jet engine, and the production model F104A, which has a lighter and more powerful engine, the General Electric J79.

Although the speeds attained were not disclosed, the pilot of an F94C jet fighter reported he was flying 500 miles an hour, and the F104A pilot, Herman R. (Fish) Salmon, was heard to reply over his radio. "I am doing better than twice that fast."

The plane was given a Hollywood type unveiling, with a cold curtain concealing part of a hangar rolling back to disclose the gleaming, spotlighted plane. Robert E. Gross, Lockheed Aircraft Corp. president, told the gathering that the F104 was "the champion in the fighter field—the finest fighter in the world."

Gen. Otto P. Weyland. commander of the tactical air command. announced that his command would be the first to receive the new air superiority fighter, and the first planes sodn [sic] will go into operational squadrons.

Weyland added that the first units to receive the F104 have not yet been determined.

The San Bernardino County Sun; San Bernardino, California; Wednesday, April 18, 1956; Page 20.

"This is much more than just another fighter," Weyland said.

"It is a significant and tremendous step forward in our progress on supersonic flight."

WINGS FAR BACK

"To the tactical air command this addition will mean a capability to strike harder and faster than any other tactical air arm in history."

"It will he a strong deterrent to any potential enemy. No other country in the world can match it at this time."

The most striking thing about the new fighter was its resemblance to a missile, largely because its wings are so short and stubby they hardly seem to qualify as airplane wings.

The short, tapered wings are far back toward the plane's tail. One observer said the craft looked like it had flown so fast its wings had slipped back and almost off, like a baby about to lose its diapers.

Another pilot, who said he flew B25 bombers in World War II, commented that after watching the F104 he felt he must have been flying in World War I.

The engine reportedly has a thrust of about 15,000 pounds. The plane is only about half as heavy as other fighters, however, so that thrust is the equivalent of that of a more powerful engine.

A. W. (Tony) LeVier, Lockheed's director of flying operations, said the F104 has the highest rate of climb of any fighter in the world. This makes possible a new military technique called the "zoom attack," in which the F104 climbs suddenly and steeply to its target, he said.

The plane has such great power that it can climb just as fast as it can fly straight and level, he said.

The San Bernardino County Sun; San Bernardino, California; Wednesday, April 18, 1956; Page 20.

SHARP WING EDGE

The Starfighter's straight wings are so thin that the leading edge is covered with felt while it is on the ground, to protect crewmen from injury. Lockheed said that other novel features of the plane include:

1. The first downward ejection seat to be used in a fighter craft.

2. The application of "boundary layer control," by "bleeding" air over the wing surface on take-offs and landings to reduce turbulence and give added lift.

LeVier, acting as master of ceremonies for the air show put on by Salmon, warned the audience that there would be a sonic boom when the plane passed through the so-called sound barrier at around 760 miles an hour.

"Because the plane is so light and sleek, it will be a lady-finger type of sonic boom," LeVier said. True to his promise, the plane produced a sharp but not overly loud report as it accelerated through the barrier in a fly-past at this desert test center.

'FINAL ROLLER'

Salmon rolled the plane over and over in his low-level, high speed run.

"That's what's known as combing." LeVier explained.

"Most planes dish about in this maneuver. The F104 rolls real fine."

A commercial version of the F104's J79 engine is to be used in the Convair Skylark, the jet transport which the Convair Division of General Dynamics Corp. plans to build. There also has been speculation that the J79 would power the Convair E58, the first supersonic bomber.

The F104A is 54 feet, 9 inches long, yet its wings extend out only 71/2 feet from the fuselage.

Independent; Long Beach, California; Monday, January 27, 1958; Page 20.

Calif. Base First to Get New Jet

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Air Defense Command announced Sunday that Hamilton Air Force Base, Calif., will be the first United States base to receive the ultra-sonic new jet interceptor, the Lockheed F104A Starfighter.

Three of the planes landed Sunday at the base near San Francisco, the ADC said. Others of the swept-wing interceptor will be flown there during the next few weeks.

Daily Independent Journal; San Rafael, California; Thursday, February 20, 1958; Pages One, Four.

SHARP AS A MISSILE—Lt. Col. Raymond E. Evans, commander of the 83rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Hamilton Air Force Base, wearing high altitude pressure suit, stands beside new needle-nosed F104A Starfighter which the Air Force accepted in ceremonies at Hamilton today. Sonic booms made by the new ships in level flight alarmed residents in Novato, where they broke at least one window. (Air Force photo)

POWER TO OUTSTRIP SOUND—General Electric J79 engine for the Lockheed F104A Starfighter is shown in foreground, in front of the supersonic plane it powers. The engine, smaller and lighter than those in earlier jet planes, produces greater thrust to make the Starfighter the fastest thing in Uncle Sam’s air. It has a diameter of approximately three feet and is 17 feet in length, (Air Force photo)

Novato residents were in an uproar today over twin sonic booms that blasted the North Marin community as the Air Force demonstrated its supersonic F104A Starfighter at Hamilton Air Force Base.

Angered residents immediately began calling the Hamilton base information office after two of the loudest booms ever to hit the community blasted in at 11:55 a.m. and noon.

Mrs. L. C. Schmidt of 563 Fernandeo drive, Novato, called the Independent-Journal's Novato office to report, in tears, that the first boom broke her dining room window.

A third boom, at 12:25, was less violent in the Novato area but was heard as far away as San Rafael, Corte Madera and Kentfield. Mrs. Joanne Jones of 44 Mountain View Avenue, Kentfield. reported "it hit the side of the house like a car ran into it."

The booms occurred during the Air Force's public unveiling of the Starfighter, which was likened in looks and performance to a "manned missile."

Daily Independent Journal; San Rafael, California; Thursday, February 20, 1958; Pages One, Four.

SHARP AS A MISSILE—Lt. Col. Raymond E. Evans, commander of the 83rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Hamilton Air Force Base, wearing high altitude pressure suit, stands beside new needle-nosed F104A Starfighter which the Air Force accepted in ceremonies at Hamilton today. Sonic booms made by the new ships in level flight alarmed residents in Novato, where they broke at least one window. (Air Force photo)

POWER TO OUTSTRIP SOUND—General Electric J79 engine for the Lockheed F104A Starfighter is shown in foreground, in front of the supersonic plane it powers. The engine, smaller and lighter than those in earlier jet planes, produces greater thrust to make the Starfighter the fastest thing in Uncle Sam’s air. It has a diameter of approximately three feet and is 17 feet in length, (Air Force photo)

Novato residents were in an uproar today over twin sonic booms that blasted the North Marin community as the Air Force demonstrated its supersonic F104A Starfighter at Hamilton Air Force Base.

Angered residents immediately began calling the Hamilton base information office after two of the loudest booms ever to hit the community blasted in at 11:55 a.m. and noon.

Mrs. L. C. Schmidt of 563 Fernandeo drive, Novato, called the Independent-Journal's Novato office to report, in tears, that the first boom broke her dining room window.

A third boom, at 12:25, was less violent in the Novato area but was heard as far away as San Rafael, Corte Madera and Kentfield. Mrs. Joanne Jones of 44 Mountain View Avenue, Kentfield. reported "it hit the side of the house like a car ran into it."

The booms occurred during the Air Force's public unveiling of the Starfighter, which was likened in looks and performance to a "manned missile."

Two of a flight of six of the Air Force's newest and fastest jets zoomed in from the south over Hamilton in supersonic level flight at altitudes of 5,000 and 10,000 feet.

A third boom was heard nearly a half hour later when a third F104 passed over the field at 35,000 feet.

In the ceremony this morning, officials of Lockheed Aircraft Corp., which built the Starfighter, turned over the new plane to the 78th Air Base Group's 83rd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.

The ceremonies were attended by Bay Area press representatives and civic leaders, as well as Lockheed officials and many high Air Force officers.

The boom demonstration which followed the ceremonies had been announced in the press yesterday, but their great intensity took Novato—and the press and the Air Force—by surprise.

The first sound barrier-breaking F104A manned by Maj. H. C. Johnson, 78th Air Base Group operations officer, zoomed in at a low altitude without warning. The craft could not be seen until it was virtually over the horizon.

The second boom came a few minutes later from a Starfighter piloted by Col. James Buckey, 78th Group commander. The third boom, at 12:25, came from a jet piloted by Capt. James Low, a member of the squadron.

A model of the F104A was presented to Lt. Gen. J. H. Atkinson, commander of the Air Defense Command, by Lockheed vice president B. C. Monesmith as a highlight of the ceremony.

To show the speed of the new plane, an F104A was raced against an F80 jet—the oldest jet in Air Force use today. The Starfighter was in the air at breakneck speed before the older jet was halfway through the takeoff.

Johnson said that the infrared device "feels" the presence of other aircraft by the heat they radiate.

Lockheed said the plane will develop more than 10,000 pounds thrust and will take off and climb faster than any fighter ever built.

The Air Force said the plane was "very economical." It estimated its delivery cost at "less than a million dollars."

Recipients of the 1958 Robert J. Collier Trophy standing with Vice President, Richard M. Nixon (center) holding a model of a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter (left to right) for the following accomplishments pertaining to the F-104 Starfighter:

Captain Walter W. Irwin, USAF, for establishing a official Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Speed Record of 1,404.09 miles per hour;

Major Howard C. Johnson, USAF for establishing a world land plane altitude record of 91,243 feet;

Neil Burgess and Gerhard Neumann, Flight Propulsion Division of General Electric Company for development of its J-79 turbo jet engines; and

Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for the design of the airframe.

The J79 and the F-104 were developed concurrently. The J79 was the first engine to exceed Mach 2.

"The Robert J. Collier Trophy is awarded annually "for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year."
Source:
National Aeronautic Association (NAA)