F-104 Starfighter

The F-104 Starfighter, created by Clarence L “Kelly" Johnson and his Advanced Development Projects engineering unit, the “Skunk Works,” at the Lockheed-California Company in Burbank, was the world’s first Mach 2 production jet and set new standards for speed, altitude, and time-to-climb. Johnson received the Collier Trophy in 1959 from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for his design work on the aircraft. Its achievements included a world altitude record of 103,395 feet set in 1959 and a time-to-climb record of 266.03 seconds to reach 82,020 feet in 1958. Development of the F-104 coincided with the need of the West German, Netherlands, Belgian, and Italian air forces for a new NATO weapons system for their European defense role, and its performance led to agreements for the aircraft to be built in those four European countries as well as Canada and Japan. Lockheed and its licensees built more than 20 different models of the F-104 between 1954 and 1979, and it was flown principally by the armed forces of 15 nations as fighter interceptors, fighter-bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft. By 1984, thirty years after its first flight, the F-104 was still in service with the air forces of 12 nations. The displayed aircraft is the two-place F-104D version, built primarily for transition training of new pilots for the U.S. Tactical Air Command.

Burbank, California · United States