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Memories of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

USAF Films Century Series Jets F-100 F-101 F-104 F-105 F-106 Air Force 1950′s old Films DVD

I first learned of the F-104 Starfighter, as a young cadet in our high school Civil Air Patrol program. A cousin, knowing my growing interest in airplanes, sent me a book for my birthday about test pilots. Needless to say, I was enthralled with the stories, especially ones, recounting the test flights of one that looked like a missile, the F-104 Starfighter.

My first recollection of the F-104 Starfighter, told about its ejection seat. Early models had a downward firing ejection seat, called the Stanley B-Seat. The powers that be, thought that most ejections of a F-104 would occur at high speeds and high altitudes. Since catapult systems were still in their infancy, they were afraid that ejecting out of the top of an F-104 flying at Mach 2, the pilot wouldn’t be able to clear the tall T-shaped tail. Though it seems implausible, ejection at low-levels was hardly a consideration.

This design was upgraded with the Stanley C and Stanley C-1 downward, ejection systems. After three years service with F-104A’s, it became clear that a downward firing ejection seat was a bad idea. Early GE-J-79-3A engines had serious flaws. They were prone to frequent engine failures, flame-outs, compressor stalls and a host of other malfunctions, many which occurred at take-off and at low levels.

Early F-104A pilots were instructed to roll the plane on its side or upside down if they had to eject at low-levels. (What a concept)! This was impracticable and many early F-104 pilots lost their lives to this disastrous design. One test pilot successfully ejected at 7,000 feet, but the loss of respected test pilot Iven Kincheloe in 1958, doomed the downward, firing system forever. They replaced it with an upward, firing Lockheed C-2 ejection seat.

Chuck Yeager

Chuck Yeager-Famous, as the man who broke the sound barrier in the X-1 rocket plane, not to mention one of my early heroes, was a test pilot. This book recounted his tale of a harrowing escape from an experimental rocket powered NF-104A.

Yeager was at the controls of a second NF-104 (56-762), on Dec. 1963. His aircraft went out of control at an altitude of 104,000 feet, and started to fall towards earth in a flat spin. Because of the drag on the plane, it fell towards earth, at the relatively slow rate  of a 100mph.

Yeager descended 30,000 feet where he deployed a drag chute to correct the spin but it failed. Yeager ejected at 6,000 feet, and fell to around 1400 feet before his chute deployed. Part of the ejection seat, which he had cut loose from, struck him in his helmet and a propellent charge on the bottom of it, severely burned one side of his face. He made a successful landing in the desert were he was  rushed to a hospital.

RAF Lakenheath

I arrived at RAF Lakenheath, England in 1967. On more than one occasion, a flight of F-104′s arrived on TDY-Temporary Duty. As I recall, they came from France, Germany and Denmark. My first impression, was of a large jet engine, which someone stuck stubby wings onto, then slapped a cockpit on top of it. Lockheed called it a “Missile with a man in it!.

Other than the look and shape, was the unique noise it made. Although we were always excited to see new and uniquie aircraft show up at our base, we weren’t too enthralled when the mechanics cranked them up in the early morning hours for maintenance. More often than not, this occurred just after we finished a midnight shift and were half-asleep in our barracks. Our nickname for the high-pitched whining sound was “BANSHEE,” as in, “Shut that friggin BANSHEE MF off so we can sleep!!” Other than the noise, we loved the F-104 and enjoyed seeing it fly.

Sources/Credits:

Personal Memories, Copyright © 2000-2012, macsmilitary.com

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
Ejection seats of the F-104.” ejectionsite.com. Retrieved: 6 February 2008
joebaugher.com
nf104.com
History of NASA F-104 Starfighter N891NA