Lockheed F-104A Starfighter by Italeri

1/72 scale
Kit No. 1234
Cost: $19.99
Decals: Three versions – USAF; Pakistani Air Force; ROC Air Force (Taiwan)
Comments: Injection molded plastic, engraved panel lines, one-piece canopy, separately molded dive brakes, option for wingtip tanks or Sidewinder missiles

History

The Lockheed F-104 was inspired by air combat experience during the Korean War and a desire on the part of the U.S. Air Force to develop a fighter that would outperform the MiG-15 and follow-on Soviet jet fighters. In March 1952 Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed design team got to work, and within eight months had conceived the basic design: a relatively small, needle-nosed, T-tailed single seat fighter that first took to the air on February 7, 1954 powered by a Wright J-65 turbojet engine.  Repeated flight testing and experimentation with different engines resulted in successively higher speeds. An XF-104, powered by the J-65, reached a speed of Mach 1.79 on March 25, 1955. Fitted with a General Electric J-79, the YF-104 reached Mach 2 on April 27, 1955. Despite its blistering speed, the new aircraft had its share of bugs to be worked out and would not enter service as the F-104A until January 1958, with the 83rd Fighter Interceptor Wing of the Air Defense Command.

This first posting highlighted the F-104’s role and the overwhelming concern of the day: development of a thoroughbred interceptor capable of rapidly reaching high altitudes to intercept and destroy Soviet jet bombers racing over the North Pole to deliver nuclear bombs. However, this was inconsistent with the initial goal of producing a plane that could counter the next generation of MiG fighters. In any case, the F-104’s debut was short-lived. Engine difficulties led to the grounding of the entire fledgling interceptor fleet by April 1958. Eventually all Starfighters were retrofitted with the General Electric J-79 and returned to service, but by then Air Force enthusiasm for the new fighter had cooled.

While the F-104 would set multiple records for straightaway speed (Mach 2.4), altitude (103, 395 feet), and time-to-climb to seven different heights, this impressive performance did not save it from being withdrawn from the U.S. Air Force’s active combat inventory by 1961. It would have a much longer career with various Air National Guard units, the Nationalist Chinese Air Force of Taiwan, and certain NATO allies of the U.S., notably Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and West Germany. Lockheed had invested heavily in the F-104’s development, and the withdrawal of the type from front-line USAF units had increased the pressure to find foreign buyers.  The Starfighter’s key deficiencies had to do with the very nature of its design. Small with razor-thin wings, it was capable of great speed but had little endurance; its tight dimensions limited its fuel capacity to the degree that without aerial refueling, it was restricted to the role of point defense interceptor, in which it excelled. But it had neither the range, nor was it capable of carrying sufficient armament, to make it a truly effective interceptor from the perspective of the Air Force brass. They were keenly aware that it lacked range, all-weather capability, and could not operate in conjunction with the U.S. defensive radar network. The Air Force preferred its F-102 and F-106 delta wing interceptors.

The clean lines of the F-104 reveal why it excelled as a point-defense interceptor. Unfortunately, it had little room for fuel, and was hampered by limited range.

In addition, while its diminutive size theoretically made it a hard-to-see adversary in a dogfight, the F-104 was not capable of the kind of air combat maneuvering that would have allowed it to get into a fur ball with Soviet MiGs, as the North American F-86 had done in the skies over Korea. Tragically, multiple pilots of the West German Air Force would learn of this shortcoming, some at the cost of their lives, when they engaged in aerobatic maneuvers while flying the Starfighter.

World War II’s Greatest Ace a Critic – In the early 1960’s, no less prominent a figure of the post-World War II Luftwaffe than Colonel Erich Hartmann (the leading ace of WWII with 352 victories) criticized the Starfighter as flawed and unsafe, and strongly opposed its purchase by West Germany. Its subsequent record with the West German Luftwaffe appears to have justified his attitude — 269 crashes with 116 pilots killed in non-combat missions, a fatality rate of 43 percent — but Hartmann was so strident in his criticism, and his clashes with superiors over the issue so heated that he was ultimately forced into early retirement in 1970.

In 1976, the Starfighter would feature prominently in an international scandal involving revelations of bribery associated with West Germany’s purchase of the plane that would cast doubt on whether the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation had won the contract purely on the merits. In February 1976, it became public knowledge that former Lockheed lobbyist Ernest Hauser admitted before a U.S. Senate investigative hearing that Lockheed had paid West German Defense Minister Franz Joseph Strauss and his political party at least $10 million in compensation for arranging for West Germany’s purchase of 900 F-104G Starfighters.  Other Lockheed officials, including then-President Carl Kotchian, confirmed this, as well as payments to other countries including Holland, Italy and Japan.

F-104G Starfighter in West German Luftwaffe colors on display at Le Bourget Aviation Museum outside Paris.

Subsequent investigation revealed that Lockheed documents on the matter had been destroyed in 1962. In the U.S. the matter was ultimately dropped, in part because making such payments to foreign officials was not illegal at the time, although Lockheed’s standing was damaged and for a time its future was in doubt. Strauss was never prosecuted by West Germany. Here in the U.S. the scandal led to the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which now regulates such dealings with foreign governments.  The F-104 Starfighter was an extremely capable interceptor, but could not perform well in an era that saw the birth of multi-role aircraft with a broad array of capabilities, and high performance combat planes being pressed into roles for which they were never designed — some of them serving long past their intended service life. Pilots who flew it either loved or hated it, and it remains a controversial American aerospace achievement to this day.

The Kit

Italeri’s Lockheed F-104A comes in the not-so-popular side opening box; looking at the fuselage one is struck by how small this interceptor actually was. The kit is injection molded in grey plastic and consists of 56 parts, including the one-piece clear plastic canopy. According to the instructions, nine of these parts are to be disregarded — they form parts for extra wingtip fuel tanks, extra missile rails, and a belly-mounted fuel tank or bomb. The cockpit tub is rather plain, featuring decals for the main and side instrument panels, and there are separate parts for the main panel, control yoke and seat. The latter part is the most detailed the cockpit has to offer.

The fuselage and diminutive, razor-thin wings bear engraved panel lines, and appear to accurately capture the Starfighter’s relatively small dimensions. There is a separate part for the elevators at the top of the F-104’s trademark “T” tail, as well as parts for separately mounted dive brakes, which can be depicted open or closed. The main landing gear consist of seven parts, including the gear doors, which will have to be cut into two pieces with a hobby knife. The nose gear consists of four parts including the gear doors.  Modeler’s have a choice of whether to mount rails with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles on the wingtips, or auxiliary fuel tanks. Since the F-104 was a short-legged point defense interceptor, opting for the missiles will also require using the parts for the center line fuel tank on the Starfighter’s belly. The paint guide calls out colors in the Testors enamel and Model Master Acryl lines.

Markings

The decals are by Italeri, printed in Italy, and provide for three versions: First is the U.S. Air Force version, with markings for the 151st Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the Tennessee Air National Guard, based at O’Hare Field in 1961; second is an aircraft of No. 9 Squadron of the Pakistani Air Force based at Punjab in 1962; third is an aircraft of No. 50 Wing of the Taiwanese Air Force, based at Kung Kuang in 1961.

All versions call for an overall aluminum scheme on the fuselage and tail, except for the nose cone which is painted white with a black “V”-shaped anti-glare panel on the upper surface of the nose. All versions have the wings painted white on top with aluminum undersides. In a bit of detail rarely seen outside of aftermarket products, decals are also provided for the wingtip fuel tanks.

Conclusion

This is a relatively simple, crisply molded version of the F-104 that should build up into a detailed kit modelers can be proud of.  A beautiful aircraft as interesting for its controversial history as for its sheer aesthetic appeal.  Its best feature is likely the degree of exterior detail. Highly recommended.

References

• F-104 Starfighter in Action; Squadron/Signal Publications No. 27, Copyright 1976 Squadron/Signal Publications, Warren, Michigan.
• Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History, edited by David T. Zabecki; Copyright 2014 ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California.
• “The Big Payoff”; TIME Magazine, February 23, 1976, pp. 28-35.
• Obituary: “A. Carl Kotchian: 1914-2008,” Chicago Tribune, December 24, 2008.