Lockheed F-104G Starfighter
The 'Super Starfighter' for NATO — rebuilt airframe, NASARR radar and inertial navigation, built by four European consortia · First flight 1960 · In service 1961
The F-104G was Lockheed's answer to a 1957 West German requirement for one aircraft to fly fighter, fighter-bomber and reconnaissance missions. Almost the whole airframe was reworked, with 96 new forgings, a strengthened structure, a larger tail with a fully powered rudder, bigger tyres and brakes and revised flaps. It got the more powerful J79-11A, the NASARR multi-mode radar and the Litton LN-3, the first inertial navigation system on a production fighter. The first F-104G flew at Palmdale on 5 October 1960.
Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy built the F-104G under licence in four production groups coordinated from Koblenz, with Canadair building wings and other parts and adding complete aircraft. With 1,127 single-seaters, plus 189 RF-104G reconnaissance and 220 TF-104G trainer aircraft, the G was the most-produced Starfighter.
In West Germany the Starfighter flew mostly low-level strike in poor weather, far from its high-altitude interceptor origins, and 116 pilots were killed in German F-104 accidents. The press called it the 'Widowmaker'. Johannes Steinhoff grounded the fleet in 1966, and the accident rate improved after that. The Luftwaffe flew its last operational F-104 sortie on 23 October 1987, and the last German F-104 flight was made by test unit WTD 61 on 22 May 1991.
