A Mach 2 jet fighter, with a very stylish and characteristic shape, presented to EA an inportant challenge. It had a ridiculous wing surface, hardly worthy of consideration as a plataform for armament. For a fighter plane it left a lot to be desired, as it was demonstrated in its limited use during the War in Vietnam. It was a dificult and unconfortable to control by the pilots.

It demanded a lot from the pilot since it required rigorous and intensive training, not only involving its flight, but learning the interpretation of the new air to air combat and firing air to ground, which were notably different from the F86 Sabre.

Never the less, it was an infallible interceptor of altitude, it being the mission for wich it was designed, and besides it was a plane equipped with the most modern and advanced aeronautics of the the time and with the most pointed technology. It was then, the first suppersonic aircraft developed with an integrated system of armament which included acquisition and fire control radar.

Its fuselage was long and pointed with short and thin wings and with a tail in the shape of a T. It was a suppersonic fighter of half wing with biconvex action and a negative “dihedral” of 10º. It had flaps on the edge of attack and exit, the ailerons were of hidraulic action and equipped with with the BLC system to increase stability and hold up when landing.

Its fuselage was monohul of 16.69 meters (55 feet) long,  a wing span of  6.68 meters (22 feet) and a height of 4.11 meters (13.5 feet). On each side on the rear part it had  brakes the landing gear was of trycicle type and retractable with the single nose wheel for stearing.

The power plant was a jet engine of 7,165 Kg (15,795 lb) of thrust capable of reaching a speed of Mach 2.2. The cockpit was pressurized and air conditioned and it was equipped with ejectable seat, automatic pilot, radar MASARR, data computers for air combat and bombing, inertial navigation system TACAN, UHF, IF/SIF and a parachute for braking.

The F-104’s that arrived in Spain belonged to the F-104G version with reinforced structure and better posibilities for armament.

They were incorporated into the Areial Defense Command with the nomenclature of C-8 for single control and CE-8 for the dual controls. In total they were 18 single control and 3 duals.

The technical characteristics and evolution of this aircraft con be outlined in the following manner:

The El F-104G (model Lockheed 683-10-19) was the version manufactured of the Starfighter for Europe, designed for the Airforces of the NATO allies. 

Externally, the F-104G was almost like the F-104C, the difference was that the C was a “multiroll”?.  

The F-104G was an all weather fighter incorporating the F15A-41B NASARR fire control system that was optomized in two basic modes: Air-Ground and Air-Air.  

In the Air-Air Mode, different functions were available, like searching with the radar, acquisition and automatically trace or track targets, with the possibility of frontal attacks and automatic firing of missles, although Spain never had this type of missle for the F-104G.

The NASARR worked in conjunction with the gunsight to direct the M-61 Vulcan canon. The gunsight would report to the pilot a lineal indication of the optical vision after the NASARR had calculated the required angle for the launching. It also incorporated a basic infrared function developed by Lockheed which gave the aircraft the posibility to improve night actions. 

For the Air-Ground Mode, the NASARR would give the pilot the information for visual bombing. It would also supply him with a map of the terrain for the bombing with any type of climitology including for the navegation in bad weather as well as the topography of the terrain for combat missions at low altitudes and it was used as a reference for the accuracy of the visual bombing. 

El F-104G had incorporated an inertial system for navigation, the Litton LN-3, that gave the pilot the continous optical indication of distance and direction, by means of inputing the geographical coordinates, of a target that had been preselected on land. The F-104 was the first fighter jet that that had this navigation system installed.

In this model, the fuselage, the wing and the “fuselage” were re-inforced so that the  aircraf could carry a heavier load of armaments, than the previous models, and it could better support the stresses to which it was submitted during combat missions “to low level" and higher speeds.  

In total, 36 points had to be re-inforced, the central parts and the length of the fuselage, adjustments in the wings, joints, tail frames,and new ribs in the “empenaje”.

Some reinforcements were also made to the exit edge aileron to allow some  inclinations of the angle of attack of up to 15º during combat maneuvers, tolerating reductions up to 33% in the turning radius at altitudes of 5000 feet. 

Just like the F-104C, they retained the seven locations for armament, one in the center of the fuselage, although, in the Spanish F-104G version it was never utilized, one in each wing and another in the points of the wings, this would allow it to carry up to 4000 pounds of external loads. 

The capacity of the fuel tanks was also increased. This revision meant going from a total  load of 1624 to 1784 gallons of fuel. 

The fuselage length of the F-104g did not change with respect to previous versions,but the tail was enlarged with more width on the vertical section, making it identical to the dual versions of the F-104B/D. This change gave it  considerable improvement to the longitudinal stability during suppersonic flights. 

Besides the rudder being incremented like the F-104B/D’s, the rudder hydraulic control system of the F-104G was equipped with controls for both, direction and yaw, therefore, eliminating the separate yaw that the previous models had..

The tail servo-mechanism was modified to permit greater movement of the hinge, so demanded by the increase of  control required by operations of to low level since it meant an increase of gross weight. The hinge and the tail movements controls were installed inside the outline of the fuselage, eliminating the aerodynamic hazars with the exterior part.

The F-104G had a  maximun take off weight slightly more that the F-104C. To handle the additional weight that had been incorporated with the reinforcement modifications and higher landing speeds, it was necessary to adapt the landing gear with larger wheels. The brakes were also improved as a consecuence of the aircfat weight and fitted with an anti-skid system,  the ABS braking system as it is known in  automobiles. the tail braking parachute was increased from 16 to 18 feet.

The ejectable seat mounted in the Spanish F-104G was the C-2, driven from below by rockets and could be used at all altitudes from ground level and speeds from 90  and 550  knots. 

The engine of the F-104G was theGeneral Electric J79-GE-11A. These engines were built under license by MAN-TURBO in Germany for the Fabrique Nationale in Belgium and for Fiat of Italy. 

 The USAF ordered 140 F-104G’s from the Canadian company Canadair, to turn over to the different nations of NATO under the program MAP. Norway, Denmark Greece, Turkey and Spain were the nations that received these F-104G’s built by Canadair. The essential differences between these planes and the versions built in Europe, was the type of NASARR installed, the F-15AM-11 which was optimized for both ways, air-air and air-ground.

The technical characteristics can be seen in the following table:

The F-104’s that arrived in Spain were 21, manufactured by Lockheed and Canadair for the MAP program.  

The first 2 TF-104G dual controls that arrived, came out of a lot of 18 planes manufactured by Lochkeed, that had been ordered in the year 1962. 

Another 11 F-104G single control, came out of a lot of 38 planes manufctured by Canadair, which had been ordered in the year 1963. 

The last 7 F-104G single control, came out of another lot of 10 planes manufactured by Canadair and had been ordered during the same year than the previous lot of 1963. 

Finally, the TF-104G dual control bought as property and also manufactured by Lockheed, was the only unit ordered and manufactured in the year 1965. 

These 21 F104, as we have previously mentioned, were asigned the clasification of identidad as C-8 and CE-8.

 The following is a  series of diagrams of the aircraft and the cockpit can be viewed using the following links. To see expanded view, click on them. If the open window shows the small format, press the ZOOM button. (For I.E.6.0)                                             

 Parts of the plane                                Left Panel               Central Panel                 Right Panel              

                                                       Gas Lever                   Flight Lever                                                                          Preflight Inspection

The seat of the F-104G that arrived in Spain was of the C2 type. This seat had in the lower part a survival kit.

The seat C2 had enough power to effect the ejection from 0 speed, in other words, from the ground and the aircraft standing still.

The recomended speed of flight to realice the ejection was understood to be between 250 and 300 knots. The sequence of ejection  was the following:   Actuate the ejection mechanism by pulling the corresponding yellow and black ring.   Automatically the lega were folded back by means of the cable connected to the heels.   By means of an exploxibe device, the cupola was ejected from the cockpit and also its rear part that was made of glass.   A series of rockets would start the ejection of the chair on the rail to which it was attached.   Sequentialy, one rocket after another were fired until the seat and the pilot were far away from the plane.   The cables that held the pilot’s legs to the seat were automaticaly cut.   The seat is detached, and the pilot is expeled by means of a network from the front of the seat.   At the moment of separation of the pilot from seat, the seat would activate a device that would release the pilot’s parachute.

Fourtunatly, this was known only in theory, because none of the Spanish F-104 ever  needed to execute an ejection 

The engine mounted on the F-104G was of the J79-GE-11A, which was later evolved as the J79-GE-15 and was used on the F-4 Phantom.

The J79 was one of the first engines that were  built with modules that were totally  interchangable. This represented an advanced  on the maintanence, because  the interchanging  of modules achived savings in time and  money, resulting in a more flexible  maintanence plan.

It was the first time that the engine and aircraft were developed at the same time and one for the other. The relationship of thrust and weight of this engine of 3500 pounds was of 15,800 pounds of thrust with afterburner.

On its time, it was the first engine in production capable of pushing the aircraft to two times the speed of sound. This engine was tested at the factory for over 12,000 hours, in height simulation and flight test before it was manufactured in series.

The design with a new compresor, allowed rapid accelerations from iddle to maximum power, without noticing or better said, without having the clasic turnoff that the other reactors of the time had.

This espectacular engine, measured 207 inches in length  and 36 inches diameter. It weighted 3,550 pounds and was installed in models F-104G, F-104J and F-104DJ. 

Basically, the engine consisted of the following parts: the compresor, the combustion chamber, the anti-freeze,  the turbine and command controls.

The comand system was controlled by electric and hydraulic means, as well as the combustion fuel with separated controls, one for the principal part and the other for the afterburner.

The regulation of fuel that reached the combustion chamber was accomplished by the Fuel Control Unit. This component would get information of the position of the lever of control of gas (actuated by the pilot), the velocity of the gyro of the engine, the discharge presure of the compresor (CDP) and the temperature of air entering the engine.

As a result if these parameters the requiered  amount of fuel was injected.

The armament that this arcraft mounted was not very extensive and neither was an oustanding arms plataform, but for the function that it had to fulfil as an interceptor its scant armament was more than enough.

In Spain, the armament that the F-104G used was the following:

    - Canon Vulcan M-61ª-1 of 20mm. 

The Vulcan  M61A1 is a gun of 20mm and six barrels independently rotated,capable of firing 6,600 rounds per minute. Its funtion is based in the principle used in the gun invented by Richard J. Gatling (the revolver) around the 1860’s. The six canons rotate, but only one would fire at the time, allowing high index of consequitive fire, while reducing the problem of wear and tear and the heat generated by the gun. The handling was controlled, hydraulicaly with a “carencia” of fire of about 6,000 rounds, or by blowing of air by a turbine, or as in the case of the F-104G in Spain that it was done electrically with a “carencia” of 4,000 rounds, the internal capacity of rounds that could carry was 750 rounds, being common to load 125 or 130 for the missions of fire air-ground.

The manufacturer of the canon was General Electric, it had a range of a mile (1.6 Km) and the caliber was 0.79 (20mm), it had a weight of 255pounds (102 Kg), it was mounted inside the fuselage and the round exit epeed was 3,400 feet/second (3730 Km/hr).

    - Rockets type LAU-3

    - Missiles Sidewinder AIM-9B

The Aim-9 Sidewinder is a  heat seaking , air to air suppersonic missile. It uses an infrared system for direction.

The Aim-9 missile is made of a cylindrical body with an attached small wing on the rear for stability, it also has a surface used for control behind the tip to improve its maneuverability.

The principal components of the missile are: a section for the infrared automatic target direction guidance, an active optical target detector, a high explosive head and the rocket motor.  

 The infrared guidance head allows the missile to lock on the heat emitted by the target’s motor. The infrared system’s cost is less than any other guidance system and it can be used at any time, day, night and even against electronic countermeasures. The infrared seeker, allows the pilot to launch the missile and not worry about having to follow the target, then  being able to take evasive action  while the missile goes on its own towards the target.

    - Bombs :     MK-82(125 Kg) 275 pounds

                        MK-83 (250 Kg) 550 pounds

                        MK-84 (500 Kg) 1100 pounds

The number of pods used were distributed on the wing tips, 2 under the wings and another 2 under the fuselaje, which were never used in Spain

With only these 4 support points for armament, it offered few combinations. Besides, almost always the tips of the wings were used for extra fuel tanks.

During the training, the armament used was almost always the Vulcan canon and bombs of 250 Kg  (550 pounds)

The Spanish Company Expal, manufactured comparable  bombs for the pilots of the F-104G, more exactly the 500 Kg (1100 pounds)

Finally, a piece of aircraft for the time in which it was conceived, incorporating a new technology that has reached to the present time.

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