F-104
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter — known as "the missile with a man in it" — the first production aircraft to reach Mach 2, captured as an RC EDF scale model.
About
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is the work of legendary Skunk Works engineer Kelly Johnson, who, after interviews with Korean War fighter pilots in 1951, deliberately bucked the trend of ever-larger and more complex fighters by producing a simple, lightweight aircraft optimized purely for maximum altitude and climb performance. The XF-104's first official flight took place on March 4, 1954, with Lockheed test pilot Anthony W. "Tony" LeVier at the controls — though that first flight ended early when a hydraulic problem prevented the landing gear from retracting and LeVier landed after just twenty minutes.
The Starfighter's design was unmistakable: thin, stubby wings attached far back on a long, slender fuselage, with the kind of profile that earned it the affectionate (and accurate) nickname "the missile with a man in it." The F-104 was the first production aircraft to achieve Mach 2 in level flight, and the first aircraft to reach 100,000 feet of altitude after taking off under its own power — extraordinary numbers for the early supersonic era. Service with NATO air forces extended the type's career into the 1980s and beyond, although the high accident rate in some operators (particularly the Luftwaffe) gave the Starfighter a complicated reputation that lingers in aviation folklore.
The unmistakable F-104 silhouette — long, slim fuselage; tiny stubby wings; T-tail; sharp pitot boom on the nose — is one of the most distinctive jet shapes ever produced, and a popular subject in the EDF scale category at modern RC fly-ins.
In the simulator
The most demanding subsonic-jet handling profile in this pack. The F-104 in our sim captures the high-speed personality of the real airframe — small wings mean high approach speeds, narrow stall margins, and the kind of energy management a real Starfighter pilot trained for. Use it for precise jet pattern flying with limited margin for error. Pairs well with airport-class landscapes that have proper long runways. A different category from the carrier jets in this pack — pure interceptor/dash design.
