Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

Warbird Tech Series Volume 38
By Jim Upton
Specialty Press, 2003
ISBN 1-58007-069-8
104 Pages, Softbound
Available from Specialty Press for $16.95

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

The latest in the Warbird Tech series takes on the famous Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. A quick and dirty search on the F-104 at various online bookstores reveals well over 100 titles referencing this aircraft, so I was reticent about finding new information in this book. Interestingly, though, this title brought to light some of the F-104 projects that I found both fascinating and new to me. Like others in the Warbird Tech series, this book takes an in-depth look at the development of the aircraft, as well as an overview of the different variants and one-off programs. The high performance of the F-104 made it ideal for many high-speed/high-altitude tests, and these are given excellent coverage here.

While the development of the F-104 is well covered in other books, this title does an excellent job of synthesizing that information into an easily read text. This section is complemented with factory drawings of some of the preliminary design studies, several of which are very neat looking aircraft (and big!). Following the development comes a section on the features of the F-104 and the initial flight testing, both of which provide a thorough picture of just what the F-104 is.

After this excellent overview, the book dives into a variant briefing, an outline on the weaponry of the aircraft, and then a section on the worldwide operators. These chapters are about as close as you will get to an operational history in this book, but this title really is not about the operational history, but rather a technical overview of the type. This leads to the next section of the book, which covers the interesting modifications to the plane for advanced research. This section includes the NF-104 and the zero-length launch program. Also included here is the novel F-104 escape capsule, which was new to me. A full serial list and information on the civilian-owned F-104s rounds out this book.

This is a concise and well-written overview of the F-104 and provides a very complete picture of the development and special projects of the type. This title will make a nice addition to any F-104 collection. My thanks to Specialty Press for the review sample. Be sure to check out their website for other Warbird Tech titles.