"HOWLING
HOWLAND",
"HOWLING
HOWLAND",
An Edwards AFFTC
F-104B
Starfighter
[Note: After having led a fairly exciting life as an expatriate American living and working in various parts of the world, my lot in life has for the past 7 years been reduced to pushing papers and flying a desk for the California State Treasurer's Office, as a minion of the California State Civil Service. Understandably, there's not much about my present calling that I can call fulfilling or exciting. About the only really substantial daily accomplishment of my life is getting home safely on my bicycle each day (I commute by bicycle), making it to my door without being nearly run over by a wild eyed house-mouse wife in her gargantuan SUV or having come close to extinction thanks to a some ignorant bumpkin in his jacked up pick-up truck, barreling along at 20 miles over the city's 35 mph speed limit. Much of my present fulfillment comes from my present association with a very interesting aircraft at our local McClellan Aviation Foundation museum (I'm also on their board). The following will tell you a bit about this wonderful Mach-2 machine that was, when first introduced by the Lockheed Aircraft Company in 1954, termed "The Missile with a Man in It". For the record, no pilot worthy of his E-seat's 'chicken ring' has EVER called the F-104 Starfighter by that fanciful public relations moniker. To real members of the righteous brotherhood of military aviators, it has always been simply "The 104"--or in Europe, "The Zipper". What follows is the special story of one of these fabulous Cold War flying machines that flew flight test support for NASA at the Edwards Dryden Flight Test Facility!]
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I am pleased to say that I and a colleague (Steve Fritts) have been given the privilege of co-crew chiefing the McClellan Aviation Museum Foundation's Lockheed F-104B model Starfighter. This aircraft, one of only 26 B model (two-seaters) produced by Lockheed, and one of about 13 NASA Starfighters, spent its entire service life in NASA as a flight research & test vehicle. First used briefly at the Ames Research Center in 1957 (its year of production), it was shortly thereafter flown to the Edwards, California, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, where it remained in active service as a flight test support aircraft until its retirement in 1978. This aircraft is today one of the stars of the excellent McClellan Aviation Foundation Museum's collection of 35 historic military aircraft, located at McClellan Park (former McClellan Air Force Base) in Sacramento, California. What follows is a brief history of this wonderfully preserved aircraft that Steve Fritts and I now share ground maintenance responsibilities for.
NASA
N819NA’s story actually begins with the establishment of NASA’s predecessor,
NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) in March of 1915. NACA’s
mission at that early time was to “…supervise and direct the scientific
study of the problems of flight with a view to their solution.”
In
1944, Congress approved funds for a research aircraft program to be administered
and conducted jointly by NACA, the US Air Force, the US Navy, and private
aviation industry. With all the advancements of Germany’s vast wartime
aeronautics research programs suddenly being made available to the United States
at the conclusion of WWII, many of the Germans’ radical new principles on and
theories of aerodynamic engineering found their way into a new series of
American research aircraft. It was not long thereafter that the first fully
documented Mach 1 flight was made by the Bell Aircraft XS-1 (14 Oct 47) and a
succession of test aircraft followed that included the Bell X-1A & B, the
Bell X-2, the Douglas X-3, the Northrop X-4, the Bell X-5 and many others. The
ultimate expression of this research culminated in the famed North American X-15
rocket research aircraft that took flight testing into the fringes of space at
speeds of up to Mach 6, from 1958 through 1969.
Meanwhile, in the
late 50s and coincident with the 1957 International Geophysical Year (IGY),
efforts were made to establish a new agency, to be known as the National
Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). With a simple preamble ("An Act to
provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth's
atmosphere, and for other purposes."), the Congress and the
President of the United States created the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958. NASA's birth was directly related to
the pressures of national defense in this period. [After World War II, the
United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War, a broad contest
over the ideologies and allegiances of the nonaligned nations.] During this
period, space exploration emerged as a major area of contest and became known as
the space race. When NASA came into being, it absorbed the earlier NACA mission
and from 1958 onwards NASA’s presence at the Edwards Air Force Flight Test
Facility (near Mojave, California) became established at the Dryden Flight
Research Center.
An
important adjunct of NASA’s flight test operations, various high speed
aircraft (usually fighter type) were employed by that agency both as flight test
“chase aircraft” (aircraft that would ‘chase’ a research aircraft during
its flight to both document the mission and provide direct support to the test
aircraft’s pilot) and as actual components of various programs and projects
dealing with aerospace research.
Three Lockheed
F-104G model single seat Starfighters were delivered to NASA’s Dryden facility
in the early 60s and designated F-104N models (N811NA, N812NA, and N813NA). A
two-seat F-104B (USAF SN 57-1303, registered later as NASA N819NA) was made
available to NASA in December 1959 and became the fourth member of the Dryden
Starfighter fleet, after an initial brief assignment to Ames Research Center
(NASA had decided to establish all of its high-speed research operations at the
Dryden Center). One of only 26 two-seat B model Starfighters made by Lockheed in
1957-58, with the addition of this two-seat Mach 2 aircraft, another dimension
was added to the Center's research capability: that of carrying instrumented
individuals and/or experiments in the back cockpit with a safety pilot flying
the aircraft from the front cockpit. As a result, numerous bio-medical
experiments were conducted, many of which were directly applicable to the space
program and which would prove to be of critical use to the aerospace medical
community.
Later designated
NASA 819, this Starfighter played a vital role in establishing the Ground
Command Guidance system used at the Flight Research Center. Some early studies
57-1303 participated in involved zero-G experiments using a small tank designed
to supply fuel continuously under zero-G conditions. Another important project
involving 57-1303 was a study of indirect viewing systems that incorporated a
periscopic apparatus in the aft cockpit. At hypersonic speeds (those reached by
an earth orbital vehicle, for instance), the windscreen of an aircraft can
exceed 2000 degrees F and needs heavy and specialized glass to withstand the
enormous thermal heating effects. If the windscreen could be done away with and
an indirect viewing system utilized as a replacement, then a large savings in
weight and structural complexity 
could
be realized. With the binocular periscopic viewing system flight tested on
57-1303, it was found that the field of view was an excellent 180 degrees
laterally and about 60 degrees vertically. Aside from some minor concerns with
parallax and depth perception, and some difficulty with the need for a pilot to
keep his face pressed against eyepieces during elevated G maneuvers, the system
was quite successful and flight test pilots in the aft cockpit used the
apparatus to make simulated X-15 unpowered (glide) descents and landings.
Two other areas in
which this aircraft made important contributions were the development of the low
lift/drag approach and landing patterns used by the X-15 and lifting bodies as
well as the testing of a ballute system. This aircraft was a major player in the early work, including
night flights, to develop and standardize the low-lift/hi-drag approach and
landing technique used so successfully in a number of programs flown at Dryden.
The principal ballute experiment involved obtaining data to evaluate a towed
high speed decelerator through a Mach number range from 0.7 to approximately
2.0, and a system that could be used to increase the drag of an asymmetrical
vehicle.
The ballute was a
semi-spherical shaped device, 4 feet in diameter, similar to a small balloon
that self-inflated with the air picked up by the small air scoops located around
its circumference when deployed. It was installed in the drag-chute compartment
of 57-1303 and deployed in a manner similar to that of a conventional drag
chute. Up until these tests, the state-of-the-art research on ballutes was
limited to wind-tunnel studies and rocket flight tests of ballutes behind
symmetrical bodies. The two-seat F-104B Starfighter (57-1303) presented a test
platform by which study of the ballute system could be expanded. During its
career of more than 18 years of NASA flight test work, 57-1303 (NASA N819NA)
flew 1,731 flights and was flown by at least 19 different pilots (sixteen from
Dryden, two from Ames, and one from the US Air Force). These individuals
included Apollo astronauts (such as Rusty Schweikert), X-15 pilots (Bill Dana,
Joe Walker), and lifting body as well as XB-70 and YF-12 pilots.
In addition to the
above work, N819NA was used extensively in biomedical research and
experimentation programs, since it allowed aircrew who were fully biotelemetered
to
undergo physiological evaluation in flight profiles at high speeds and high
altitudes. One such program involved the development of miniaturized
physiological instrumentation for measuring physical performance parameters
(heart & respiratory rates, 02 consumption, and pulse wave velocity) of
aircrew. Recording pulse wave velocity provided definition of the time delay in
the pulse wave traveling from the heart to an extremity—in this application, a
fingertip. These measurements allowed researchers to predict a pilot’s
workload. One ‘spin-off’ from this work was a ‘spray-on’ electrode used
to obtain in-flight electrocardiograms. Another result of this important
biomedical experimentation carried out in 57-1303 was a real-time
electrocardiogram instrument system that has found successful use in civilian
paramedical rescue applications all over the world. Additionally, 57-1303 was
instrumental in the development of an in-flight mass spectrometer to analyse
breathing, as well as advanced aircrew cooling systems. Various key crew
components of the Apollo spacecraft’s life support systems (the Apollo
spacesuits) were also flight tested as part of their proof-of-concept evaluation
in the aft cockpit of this two-seat Starfighter.
A further
important area of special research carried out in 57-1303 involved development
of the Ground Command Guidance System (GCG) already mentioned, which was a
forerunner of the Remotely Augmented Vehicle System now in use. Another program
flight tested in 57-1303 was known as ‘Big Boom’ project. This involved
flight of the aircraft through linkage with a special computerised ground flight
profile that would allow energy from sonic booms to be focused on a specific
area of the earth for various scientific measurements; the program took place in
Ely, Nevada, and the aircraft was deployed to that site for this study.
Finally, after 19
years of extensive use, 57-1303 (NASA N819NA) was retired from service in April
of 1978 (last NASA flight: April 21, 1978) and flown to the US Air Force’s
AMARC (Aircraft Maintenance and Recovery Center) facility in Tucson, Arizona.
Although most of the surviving B model Starfighters retired to AMARC were
transferred to the Jordanian and Taiwanese air forces (such was the fate of
57-1304, N819NA’s sister ship) in the late 70s and early 80s, 57-1303 somehow
escaped this fate and was handed over to the McClellan AFB Aviation Museum’s
aircraft collection by the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
Flown
to McClellan AFB in the hold of a cargo aircraft in 1983, after having its
General Electric J-79-GE-3B engine removed and subsequent to having undergone
required ‘de-mil’, the aircraft was put on display as the star of the
museum’s ‘Century Series’ fighter row. In 1991, the aircraft received a
new paint job, courtesy of the Sacramento ALC, which is a generic Starfighter
paint scheme that is loosely correct. The present paint scheme, however, is not
absolutely congruent either to its original colors as first used by NASA Dryden,
or to the final blue & white NASA livery that it was retired in. For a color
illustration of the correct color schemes worn by this aircraft throughout its
19 years of NASA service, please refer to an excellent painting done by NASA
Dryden artist and photographer Tony Landis, elsewhere in this folder.
Lockheed F-104B
Starfighter SN 57-1303 / NASA N819NA is today maintained in generally excellent
static condition and is well cared for by its present museum crew (Steve Fritts,
myself, and Howard Dishman). The cockpit is authentically restored to correct
functional appearance, complete with the upwards-firing Lockheed-Stanley C-2
ejection seats (these replaced the original C-1 downward-firing model that
proved very dangerous to use in actual flight operations), 140000-44 model
seat-survival kits, and all key instrumentation intact.
On special museum
‘open-cockpit days’, the canopies of Starfighter 57-1303 are opened and
museum visitors are allowed to view the cockpit area of the aircraft. Visitors
are not normally allowed actual entry into the cockpit (that is, sitting in the
cockpit is not permitted), however, due to cramped space and safety
considerations.
The major
structural differences between the single seat ‘A’ model and the two-seat
‘B’ model consisted of elimination of the 20 mm Vulcan cannon so that a
second seat could be added, reduction of internal fuselage fuel capacity for the
same reason, the installation of an extended canopy glazing over both seats, an
increase in the size of the vertical stabilizer by about 21% (identical to that
used on the later F-104G model) with power boost system, and replacement of the
forward retracting nosegear by a rearward retracting system. All F-104B
Starfighters were initially produced with a simplified extended canopy glazing
and two downward firing Lockheed C-1 ejection seats. When these seats were
replaced by the safer upwards firing C-2 seats, a newer, somewhat reconfigured
extended canopy glazing was installed that allowed the canopies of fore and aft
seats to be explosively blown off for emergency egress.
Performance
specifications of the two-seat F-104B model Starfighter are as follows:
Wing
span: 21 feet, nine inches
Length:
54 feet, 8 inches
Height:
13 feet, 5 inches
Wing
area: 196.1 square feet (95 lbs/sq ft
wing loading--VERY high!)
Empty
weight: 13,327 pounds
Maximum
weight: 17,812 pounds
Combat
weight: 14,912 pounds
Maximum
speed at altitude: 1,145 mph
at 65,000 feet
Cruise
speed: 516 mph
Maximum
rate of climb: 64,500 feet per
minute
Service
ceiling: 64,795 feet
Normal
range: 460 miles (internal fuel
capacity 897 US gallons or 2,847 lbs)
Maximum
range: 1,225 miles (fitted
with external twin wingtip drop tanks)
Engine:
General Electric J79-GE-3A or 3B axial flow turbojet with afterburner
Rated
power (without afterburner): 9,600
pounds static thrust`
Rated
power (with full afterburner): 14,800
pounds static thrust
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Some odd
57-1303 anecdotal history, as yet unconfirmed:
One curious thing
that came to light in researching the past of this aircraft is the following:
Reportedly, at least a few of the Dryden personnel apparently knew this aircraft
as “Howling Howland”. The strange name might be somewhat puzzling, as
it indeed was to us when this fact was first uncovered. A possible and in fact
very likely explanation of the name may be found in the fact that the General
Electric J79-GE-3A/B turbojet (with afterburner) that is fitted to the F-104B
Starfighter produces a very unusual sound that is unique to these aircraft
(F-104s) alone. This sound, variously described as ‘howling’,
‘shrieking’, ‘high-pitched moaning’, or even as a ‘wounded banshee
scream’, results from the passage of fuel from the primary and secondary fuel
jets in the exhaust section of engine as the airflow is disturbed by the engine
bypass flaps during various throttle positions. Somewhat the same principle is
responsible for the sound that is produced by pursing the lips and blowing over
the top of a glass bottle neck. Whatever the cause, the ‘howling’ sound is a
most unique characteristic of the F-104 aircraft and may be produced at will by
the pilot either in the air or on the ground by certain settings of the
throttle.
Further, and
curiously enough, the name “Howland” was the name of a certain owlish
character in 1950s era cartoonist Walt Kelly’s cartoon strip POGO. “Howland
Owl” was depicted as a somewhat pretentious, bookish, effete character who was
always a bit uncertain about his acquired learning and feigned sophistry.
The character
“Howland Owl” was also featured on the first unofficial emblem of the newly
founded US Air Force Test Pilot School, when it moved from back east to its new
Muroc Air Force Base location (Edwards). On that emblem, “Howland” is shown
disconcertedly riding what was at that time a new P-80 Shooting Star as it
plunged down into an uncontrolled dive (see illustration adjacent). This
coincidental use of the Howland Owl character in association with the Edwards
Test Pilot School, along with the Starfighter engine’s known tendency to
‘howl’, presents strong circumstantial evidence for adoption of the
character’s name for NASA F-104B 57-1303 (“Howling Howland”).
Strangely enough, there is a further tie-in to the Howland name, for one of the most important aeronautical engineers working with Clarence Kelly on Lockheed Project CL-2246-1-1 (the final research design that took form as the XF-104 prototype) was named W. L. Howland! Dr. Howland, who had worked for Lockheed from the early 40s through the mid 60s, filled a number of important positions for Lockheed over that 25 year period. In the 40s he was 'Flight Instrumentation Supervisor', 'Flight Test Supervisor', and 'Chief Instrumentation Engineer'; in the 50s he held the post of 'Design Engineer--Flight Test' and later 'Assistant Chief Flight Test Engineer'. By the time the 60s had arrived, Howland progressed through 'Director of Instrumentation and Measurements', 'Technical Manager Diversified Development', and finally 'Development Scientific Advisor'. Throughout the last two decades, Dr. Howland figured prominently in most of the advanced research & development work that went into the F-104 Starfighter program, including both Starfighter Phase 1 and Phase 2 flight test programs at the Edwards AFFTC. Although the early F-104A was still an unfinished diamond in the rough and beset with a number of control parameter challenges, it was through the exacting isolation and analyses of these flaws and the refinements undertaken by Howland and his Lockheed team to overcome and correct them that the F-104 Starfighter ultimately achieved its perfected final form. Again, it is uncertain as to how Dr. Howland's name may figure in the naming of 57-1303 (NASA N819NA) as "Howling Howland", but the speculative possibilities are fascinating to reflect upon.
Whatever the true
circumstances behind the name "Howling Howland" (and whether the
conjectures are factual), no conclusive
corroboration of these possible tie-ins has yet been uncovered. They do remain a most
intriguing possibility, however, and if the above details have substance, it is also a most
interesting ‘personalisation’ of this unique aircraft in NASA’s
Dryden stable of Lockheed F-104 Starfighters. If the anecdote is apocryphal, on the other
hand, these facts nevertheless still add significantly to the fascination chronicle of
historic information on NASA Starfighter N819NA (ex-USAF 57-1303). Regardless of whether
historical fact or apocrypha, Lockheed Starfighter 57-1303 / NASA N819NA has today been
officially named "Howling Howland" by the McClellan Aviation Museum
team responsible for its upkeep, maintenance, and preservation!
Embroidered patches available for NASA Starfighter N819NA/57-1303:
We have at this
time two patches produced for NASA N819NA. These are now available for purchase
by the general public at a cost of $5 each (plus a modest postal charge) and are
professionally made embroidered emblems suitable for wear on a flight suit or collecting.
Funds raised from the sale of these special patches go exclusively towards
maintenance costs and general upkeep of "Howling Howland" as a static
display, so it's a worthy cause, folks! Please contact us to inquire about
purchase of either of the two patches at aeoluslifesupport@lanset.com
. [The USAF Command type shield patch is 4.5" by 4.75", while the
"Howland" patch is 3.5" in diameter.]
Patch #1
(not shown to scale)
Patch #2 (not shown to scale)
The following excellent set of 3 illustrations is a guide to the color schemes worn by 59-1303 in its NASA service (reproduced with permission of NASA Dryden artist/photographer Tony Landis, to whom we are indebted for his gracious assistance in providing photographs and illustrative details of this aircraft):
KEY TO PHOTOGRAPHS (top to bottom and left to right):
1) 57-1303 as it appeared in February 1961, still in standard USAF paint (photo credit: Tony Landis, NASA)
2) N819NA in flight with B-52 'Mothership' and X-15 rocket research craft (photo credit: Tony Landis, NASA)
3) Flight Test pilot Bill Dana with N819NA (photo credit: Tony Landis, NASA)
4) NASA Gemini Astronaut Rusty Schweikert, testing a Gemini mission suit in N819NA (photo credit: Tony Landis, NASA)
5) N819NA leading a flight of NASA Starfighters based at Dryden/Edwards AFFTC (photo credit: Tony Landis, NASA)
6) Last NASA flight of N819NA, preflight commemorative photograph (photo credit: Tony Landis, NASA)
7) NASA N819NA / 57-1303 at the McClellan Aviation Museum today (photo: Chris Carey)
8) Chris Carey with NASA N819 / USAF 57-1303 at McClellan Aviation Foundation Museum, Feb 2003 (photo: Steve Fritts)
10) Steve Fritts, co crew chief of the aircraft (photo: Chris Carey)
11) Howland Christmas Greetings! 2004 (photo: Chris Carey)
This aircraft may be viewed, along with all the other excellent specimens of US military aircraft at the McClellan Aviation Foundation Museum, located at McClellan Park (former grounds of McClellan AFB), which is located in the North Highlands area of Sacramento, California. The aircraft collection is generally open for viewing during normal hours (Sunday from 1200 through 1600 hours only), 7 days a week, thanks to the excellent and very dedicated volunteers without whom the McClellan Museum could not continue to operate. The museum's website may be found at the following URL: http://www.mcclellanaviationmuseum.org/
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AN EGRESS HISTORY OF THE LOCKHEED F-104 STARFIGHTER (Ejection seat systems)
AN ENGINEERING COMMENTARY ON THE F-104 BY RODFORD EDMISTON (Aircraft design technology)
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