Jackie Cochran and Lockheed F-104G Starfighter 62-12222 at Edwards AFB, 1964. (FAI)
1 June 1964: At Edwards Air Force Base, Jackie Cochran flew a Lockheed F-104G Starfighter, serial number 62-12222, over a 100 kilometer (62.137 miles) closed circuit without payload, averaging 2,097.27 kilometers per hour (1,303.18 miles per hour).¹ This new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) speed record broke the one set a year earlier—2,038.70 kilometers per hour (1,266.79 miles per hour)—by Cochran’s friend and competitor, Jacqueline Auriol, who flew a Dassault Mirage IIIR delta-winged reconnaissance fighter at Istres, France. ²
Designed by the legendary Kelly Johnson as a Mach 2 interceptor, the Starfighter was used as a fighter bomber by Germany. The F-104G was most-produced version of the Lockheed Starfighter. It had a strengthened fuselage and wings, with hardpoints for carrying bombs, missiles and additional fuel tanks. Built by Lockheed, they were also licensed for production by Canadair, Dornier, Fiat, Fokker, Messerschmitt and SABCA.
The F-104G is a single-seat, single-engine fighter bomber, 54 feet 8 inches (16.662 meters) long with a wingspan of just 21 feet, 9 inches (6.629 meters) and overall height of 13 feet, 6 inches (4.115 meters). The empty weight is 14,000 pounds (6,350.3 kilograms) and loaded weight is 20,640 pounds (9,362.2 kilograms).
The F-104G was powered by a General Electric J79-GE-11A engine, a single-spool, axial-flow, afterburning turbojet, which used a 17-stage compressor section and 3-stage turbine. The J79-GE-11A is rated at 10,000 pounds of thrust (44.48 kilonewtons), and 15,800 pounds (70.28 kilonewtons) with afterburner. The engine is 17 feet, 4.0 inches (5.283 meters) long, 3 feet, 2.3 inches (0.973 meters) in diameter, and weighed 3,560 pounds (1,615 kilograms).
The maximum speed is 1,328 miles per hour (2,137.2 kilometers per hour). It has a combat radius of 420 miles (675.9 kilometers) or a ferry range of 1,630 miles (2,623.2 kilometers). The service ceiling is 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).
The Starfighter’s standard armament consists of a 20 mm General Electric M61A1 Vulcan 6-barreled Gatling gun, with 725 rounds of ammunition, and up to four AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air heat seeking missiles could be carried on the wingtips or under wing pylons. In place of missiles two wingtip fuel tanks and another two underwing tanks could be carried.
On NATO alert, the F-104G was armed with a B43 variable-yield nuclear bomb on the fuselage centerline hardpoint. The B43 could be set for explosive force between 170 kilotons and 1 megaton and was designed for high-speed, low-altitude, laydown delivery.
Jackie Cochran set three speed records with this F-104 in May and June 1964.³ Under the Military Assistance Program, the U.S. Air Force transferred it to the Republic of China Air Force, where it was assigned number 4322. It crashed 17 July 1981. The pilot, Yan Shau-kuen, ejected.
The record-setting Lockheed F-104G Starfighter, USAF serial number 62-12222, in service with the Republic of China Air Force as 4322. (Detail from image International F-104 Society)
Toniann LeVier and Tony LeVier flew this Lockheed TF-104G Starfighter from Palmdale, California to Washington, D.C., 29 May 1963. (Lockheed Martin)
29 May 1963: Lockheed Test Pilot Anthony W. “Tony” LeVier and his 18-year-old daughter, Toniann LeVier, flew the company’s two-place TF-104G Starfighter demonstrator, FAA registration N104L, from Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. They made fuel stops at Kirkland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton Ohio.
Lockheed TF-104G Starfighter N104L, a company-owned demonstrator aircraft, being refueled during its transcontinental flight, May 1963. (Stephen Miller, International F-104 Society)
The Oxnard Press Courier reported:
PALMDALE, Calif. — Toni Ann LeVier, 18, recently earned the title of World’s Fastest Teen-ager after a scorching Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) flight in the front cockpit of a Talley Corporation equipped TF-104G Super Starfighter.
The back-seat driver of the Lockheed aircraft A.W. (Tony) LeVier, her father.
Director of flying operations for Lockheed-California Company, Tony took Toni for a double crack at the sound barrier in the supersonic corridor near Edwards Air Force Base…
The teen-age fledgling flier handled the TF-104G controls during the Mach 2 dash.
Flying the stub-wing fighter was a giant step for Toni, who holds a student pilot’s license.
She started flying lessons in January and has 35 hours in a Beechcraft Musketeer light plane, whose docile 140-m.p.h. speed is about one-tenth that of the TF-104G.
A student at John Muir High School in Pasadena, the pert Mach 2 Miss offered this reaction to the flight:
“I’m still tingling. That sudden surge of power made me feel like we were taking off for outer space, but it’s just as easy to fly as a light plane.”
The company-owned TF-104G they flew is being assigned to Andrews AFB near Washington for a series of demonstrations to U.S. Air Force officials.
Toni volunteered to help Pop ferry the airplane on the cross-country hop.
They plan to leave Friday morning. Stops are scheduled at USAF bases at Albuquerque, Oklahoma City (where they will remain overnight after a noon arrival), and at Dayton, Ohio.
Toni is no stranger to military bases.
She was named “Miss Starfighter” by F-104 pilots of the 479th Tactical Fighter Wing, George AFB, Calif., for Armed Forces Week.
at Andrews AFB Saturday the LeViers will turn the 1500-m.p.h Super Starfighter over to a Lockheed Demonstration team.
Then — for Toni — it’s back to flying a school desk.
Toniann LeVier on the cover of This Week Magazine, 28 September 1963.
Toniann LeVier was born 21 September 1944 in Los Angeles County, California. She was the first of two daughters of Anthony W. (“Tony”) Levier, a test pilot for Lockheed in Burbank, California, and Neva Jean Ralph LeVier. Miss LeVier attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, where she participated in the Adelphians, the Civil Affairs Council, Fine Arts Council and the Senior Class Council. She graduated in 1963. Later, she studied at Cabrillo College, Aptos, California.
Miss LeVier married David M. Logan, a real estate agent from La Cañada, California, on 11 July 1964. On 24 June 1978, she married her second husband, Theodore E. Posch, in Orange, California. On 21 June 2003, she married Richard Samuel Almaz, a chef, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Today, Mrs. LeVier-Almaz works as a massage therapist. She and her husband live in Aptos.
Lockheed’s demonstrator TF-104G Starfighter, N104L, Free World Defender (Lockheed Martin)
N104L is the same aircraft in which Jackie Cochran set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) speed record of 1,273.12 miles per hour (2,048.88 kilometers per hour) over a 15/25 kilometer straight course, 12 April 1963.¹ 1,203.94 miles per hour over a 100 kilometer closed circuit on 1 May 1963.²
N104L, originally registered N90500, was retained by Lockheed for use as a customer demonstrator to various foreign governments. In 1965 Lockheed sold N104L to the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (the Royal Netherlands Air Force), where it served as D-5702 until 1980. It next went to the Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force), identified as 4-702. The record-setting Starfighter was retired in 1989 and after several years in storage, was scrapped.
22 May 1991: After nearly 30 years in service with West Germany, the F-104 Starfighter made its last flight before retirement. The Luftwaffe was the largest single operator of the Lockheed F-104 with nearly 35% of the total worldwide production in West German service. 915 F-104F two-place trainers and F-104G fighter-bombers were built, with most going to the Luftwaffe, but 151 were assigned to the West German Navy.
Designed by the legendary Kelly Johnson as a Mach 2 interceptor, the Starfighter was used as a fighter bomber by Germany. The F-104G was most-produced version of the Lockheed Starfighter. It had a strengthened fuselage and wings, with hardpoints for carrying bombs, missiles and additional fuel tanks. Built by Lockheed, they were also licensed for production by Canadair, Dornier, Fiat, Fokker, Messerschmitt and SABCA.
The F-104G is a single-seat, single engine fighter bomber, 58.26 feet (17.758 meters) long with a wingspan of just 21.94 feet (6.687 meters) and overall height of 13.49 feet (4.112 meters). The empty weight is 14,000 pounds (6,350.3 kilograms) and loaded weight is 20,640 pounds (9,362.2 kilograms).
The F-104G was powered by a General Electric J79-GE-11A engine, a single-spool, axial-flow, afterburning turbojet, which used a 17-stage compressor section and 3-stage turbine. The J79-GE-11A is rated at 10,000 pounds of thrust (44.48 kilonewtons), and 15,800 pounds (70.28 kilonewtons) with afterburner. The engine is 17 feet, 4.0 inches (5.283 meters) long, 3 feet, 2.3 inches (0.973 meters) in diameter, and weighed 3,560 pounds (1,615 kilograms).
The maximum speed is 1,328 miles per hour (2,137.2 kilometers per hour). It has a combat radius of 420 miles (675.9 kilometers) or a ferry range of 1,630 miles (2,623.2 kilometers). The service ceiling is 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).
The Starfighter’s standard armament consists of a 20 mm General Electric M61A1 Vulcan 6-barreled Gatling gun, with 750 rounds of ammunition, and up to four AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air heat seeking missiles could be carried on the wingtips or under wing pylons. In place of missiles two wingtip fuel tanks and another two underwing tanks could be carried.
General Electric M61A1 20 mm rotary cannon in the weapons bay of a Messerschmitt-built F-104G Starfighter. (Michael Wolf/Wikipedia)
On NATO alert, the F-104G was armed with a B43 variable-yield nuclear bomb on the fuselage centerline hardpoint. The B43 could be set for explosive force between 170 kilotons and 1 megaton and was designed for high-speed, low-altitude, laydown delivery.
German Air Force F-104G Starfighter DB+127 at the Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr, Berlin Gatow. The fighter bomber equipped with four external fuel tanks and a ZELL-Verfaren rocket booster for Zero-Length Launch. A B43 nuclear bomb is on the centerline hardpoint. (MoRsE via Wikipedia)
The Starfighter had an undesirable reputation for high accident rates. Over the 31 years the F-104 was in service with Germany, 292 F-104s were lost in accidents, resulting in the deaths of 116 pilots. 41% of these accidents were due to engine failure, and 16% due to bird strikes. This can be attributed the the nature of the mission: high-speed, low-altitude flight, in the poor weather conditions of Europe. (Previously, the Luftwaffe acquired 558 Republic F-84s, of which 202 were lost—a slightly higher accident rate.) The German press, however, gave it the name Witwenmacher (“Widowmaker”).
The last Luftwaffe F-104 to fly was 26+40 from Ingolstadt Manching Airport, 22 May 1991.
