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Lockheed F-104 Starfighter: The Supersonic Jet Fighter That May Actually Be Cursed

It's a lot closer to Christmas than it is to Halloween right now. But because it's Celebration Month here at autoevolution, we've decided to focus on something very, very spooky. On the face of it, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter may have looked like one good-looking and capable jet fighter.
F-104 Accident 15 photos
Photo: German Federal Archives
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But as most av-geeks will tell you, the Starfighter was a supersonic jet interceptor that might as well have a voodoo-hex cast on it. From an outsider's perspective, it would certainly appear this way based on its less-than-squeaky-clean accident record. Especially with one particular nation, it was as if nothing could go right.

The Starfighter is an airplane steeped in a polarizing history full of scandals, controversy, and public discontent. Though its public image has been remediated over the years by its appearance in video games like Ace Combat and War Thunder, a section of the aviation community finds the F-104's bad points firmly outweigh the good. In no uncertain terms, the Starfighter earned a reputation both domestically and abroad as a death trap.

This was especially the case in NATO-aligned West Germany. In fact, Lockheed Corporation, the makers of the Starfighter, proposed a purpose-built version of the aircraft specifically for West Germany and its European NATO allies even before the first prototype American XF-104 prototype had begun flight testing.

Under this proposal, the forthcoming F-104G Starfighter was to have a more powerful variant of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine, beefed-up combat flaps for better maneuvering performance, and pylons on which everything from air-to-air missiles and even ground ordinance would be fitted under the wings. Wings, mind you, that were so thin at the leading edges that one could almost shave their face on them.

F\-104 Starfire
Photo: German Federal Archives
More than a few ground personnel, including Americans, sustained injuries from bonking their noggins on this portion of the aircraft. It was to the point a special covering was manufactured, which essentially functioned like a covering bra for your car. Only in this case, it was designed to protect ground personnel, not the vehicle itself.

The XF-104 took its first flight in 1954. The mechanical problems started soon after. Steadily at first. But before long, that flow turned into a flood. It started with problems with stability in a high-speed dive. Depending on the angle of attack, the aircraft could start violently oscillating like a bucking stallion. This could potentially disorientate the pilot to the point of crashing if they were unfortunate enough to fly at low altitudes.

Later, problems persisted with the colossal J79's afterburner grenading the engine on takeoff at the point where it generated the most thrust. If the pilot was already in the air when this happened, which did occur more than a few times, the only option was to eject. This was how the first German F-104 ever lost to an accident met its end. At least seven airframes were lost in this fashion.

If you can believe it, the newly formed post-war Luftwaffe recruited Second World War pilots to fill the gaps when there weren't enough new recruits to fill squadrons. Keep in mind, the fastest speed a fighter jet that ever flew by the end of World War II was between 540 and 600 mph (869 and 965 kph); in either a German Me-262 or a British Gloster Meteor. The F-104 could exceed twice the speed of sound.

F\-104 Starfire
Photo: USAF
If you think that sounds like a recipe for disaster, you couldn't be more correct. The flight dynamics and insane G-forces exerted on the human body at Mach-two flight was quite a bit for these now-old and often rotund ex-Nazi airmen to handle. It's unclear how many of the 116 pilots who lost their lives at the stick of German F-104s did so for this reason. But one thing's for sure, that number was too many.

To make matters worse, NATO officials adopted a doctrine for German F-104s that dictated they would be used not as high-speed interceptors but as fighter bombers. The Starfighter was about as inept at dropping ordinance on ground targets as it was brilliant at flying well above Mach two. The point of blame in this regard was the stubby wings meant to cut through thin air at supersonic speeds, which didn't lend much lift at such slow speeds and low altitudes.

If a pilot were to misjudge their speed, altitude, or both while dropping unguided bombs in unclear weather, the results could very well turn the Starfighter into a very large lawn dart. With that in mind, it might be a shock that the U.S. Air Force decided to fit a Rocketdyne AR-2 rocket engine to the rear end of three F-104s in support of the X-15 space plane program.

Such a bonkers decision certainly merits a catastrophe story. In this case, this was fulfilled by nearly killing Chuck Yeager when his NF-104 rocket-jet hybrid suffered an engine failure in the middle of a rocket-assisted screaming-power climb. Luckily, Yeager was able to eject safely. This alone would make the F-104 live in infamy in the United States.

F\-104 Starfire
Photo: USAF
But, because the Starfighter might legitimately be cursed, this was just a highlight in a series of very unfortunate events involving this warbird. On June 8, 1966, a single F-104 flew in formation with two F-5 Freedom Fighters, one F-4 Phantom II, and a gargantuan XB-70 Valkyrie Mach-three-capable experimental strategic bomber. In typical Starfighter fashion, the single F-104 veered just a little too close to the highly secretive and ludicrously expensive XB-70.

The Starfighter crashed right into the broad side of the XB-70, killing the F-104 pilot and totally destroying one of the only two Valkyrie examples North American aviation managed to build before the project was canceled. The second XB-70's been delegated to museum duty ever since.

Between the Starfighter's limited and not-all-that-impressive stint in the Vietnam War and its service elsewhere, the F-104 earned an aircraft-loss rate of 25.2 per 100,000 flight hours. During this time, the F-104 served in the Armed Forces of the U.S., Germany, Italy, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Norway, and Taiwan, among others. Many of which were built under license in their respective nations. But wherever it went, the Starfighter couldn't seem to stop being a magnet for bad publicity.

Even as recently as 2019, a disused F-104 airframe was used as the basis for the North American Eagle land-speed-record attempting jet car intended to reach at least Mach 1.02 (763 mph, 1,228 kph). On August 29, 2019, the North American Eagle crashed with driver and television personality Jessi Combs at the wheel, killing her instantly. It's just one more name on a list of lives lost in Starfighter accidents far longer than it should have been.

F\-104 Starfire
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Fair Use)
Lockheed wound up paying at least 60 widows of pilots lost in Starfighter accidents millions in compensation. Thus earning the F-104 the dubious title of "the Widowmaker." In truth, the F-104 Starfighter was an admittedly flawed but brilliant machine that broke records and looked gorgeous while doing it.

It's also important to remember that much of the F-104's trouble stemmed from combat doctrines that didn't match the plane's strengths very well. With that in mind, it might be a little hyperbolic to say the Starfighter was cursed by evil spirits. But seeing the bizarre ways so many F-104s met their demise might have you second-guessing that.

That's also without mentioning the unscrupulous way bribes were used to get foreign militaries to buy this flaming pencil. But that's a story for another time.

Check back soon for more from Celebration Month here on autoevolution.
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