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Profile – Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
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The Controversial Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
In 1954, from out of the “Skunk Works” came an aircraft with a wing so thin and razor sharp that “it could cut steak”. It was said to be a “missile with a man in it”. It could climb higher and fly faster than anything that had been built before. It captured the world’s air speed and altitude records. It was made under licence in six countries. And yet it was not wanted by the air force of its own nation, it was demanding to fly and totally unforgiving of error and it fell out of the sky more often than any other type. . .
The “Skunk Works” is to be found in a nondescript high-security building on the sprawling Lockheed complex at Burbank, Los Angeles, California, and is actually the company’s top secret design and development centre. There, in 1952, Kelly Johnson was chief engineer.
Johnson had joined Lockheed in the mid-1930s and was appointed Chief Research Engineer in 1938. His pre-war designs included the P-38 Lightning, Model 18 Lodestar and Hudson bomber. During WW2 he was involved in designing the 8-37, PV-1 Ventura bomber, P2V Neptune and Constellation transport. In an incredibly short 143 days in 1943 he and his team designed and built the USA’s first operational jet fighter, the P-80 Shooting Star. Between 1945 and 1952 he was responsible for the Constitution aircraft, F-90 interceptor, X-7 ramjet test vehicle, T-33 and TV-2 jet trainers and the F-94 Starfire series.
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