A BRIEF HISTORY OF
LOCKHEED F-104B STARFIGHTER
TAIL
NUMBER USAF 57-1303
NASA
N819NA
“HOWLING HOWLAND”
(Former NASA Flight Test research aircraft)
NASA N819NA is a Lockheed
F-104B ‘Starfighter’, formerly flown for two decades at Edwards Air
Force Flight Test Center’s
N819NA’s story actually
begins nearly 42 years before it was built, with the establishment of NASA’s
predecessor NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), in March of
1915. NACA’s mission at its inception was to “…supervise and direct the
scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their solution”, for
it was quickly recognized when the first primitive aircraft took to the air
that these new ‘flying machines’ would present complex challenges to our then
rudimentary understanding of the principles of ‘manned heavier-than-air,
powered flight’.
In 1944, Congress approved
funds for an experimental 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 (much of which came to us through ‘Operation Paperclip’),
many of the Germans’ radical new theories on 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 advanced 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
leap forward in aerodynamic 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 establishment of an ‘International Geophysical Year’ (IGY) in
1957, efforts were made to establish an entirely new agency on NACA’s
foundation, to be known as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(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
An important apart 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 closely
follow a research aircraft during its flight to both document the mission and
provide direct support to the test aircraft’s pilot) and as actual component
elements of various programs and projects dealing with high altitude aerospace
research.
Three Lockheed F-104G model single seat
Starfighters were initially delivered to NASA’s Dryden facility in the early
60s and designated F-104N models (N811NA, N812NA, and N813NA); However, a
two-seat F-104B (USAF SN 57-1303, registered later as NASA N819NA) was made
available to NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffitt Field (CA) in December
1959; it became the fourth member of the Dryden Starfighter fleet, after an
initial brief assignment at Ames (NASA had decided to establish all of its
high-speed research operations at the new Edwards desert facility). 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. The two-seat Starfighter consisted initially carrying
instrumented individuals and/or experiments in the back cockpit (with a safety
pilot flying the aircraft from the front cockpit), however, that role was soon
greatly expanded. As a result, the conduct of numerous bio-medical experiments
was enabled, 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 two-seat
Starfighter played a vital role in establishing the Ground Command Guidance
system used at the
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. NASA N819NA was a major player in the early work done
on simulated Shuttle landing approaches , including night flights, to develop
and standardize the low-lift/hi-drag approach and landing technique used so
successfully in a number of advanced 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, as a
system that could be used to increase the drag of an asymmetrical vehicle on
entry to Earth’s atmosphere.
The ballute itself 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. Investigated intensely as
a means of decelerating the atmospheric descent of space vehicles (such as
orbital capsules and lifting body type spacecraft), the ballute system was
eventually ruled out for use on atmosphere re-entering American spacecraft, but
much of the applied theoretical investigation into its suitability was carried
out by 57-1303 as the principal ballute ‘proof of concept’ test aircraft.
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), General Chuck Yeager,
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 bio-telemetered 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 major ‘spin-off’ from
this work was a ‘spray-on’ electrode used to obtain in-flight
electrocardiograms, an invention that was later widely used in civilian
hospital emergency rooms. 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, NASA 819NA 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 NASA N819NA 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 NASA
N819NA was known as the ‘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
Eventually, after 19 years of extensive use,
57-1303 (NASA N819NA) was retired from active 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 26 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 put in the hands of the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB,
Dayton, Ohio, which then allocated it to the Aerospace Museum of California’s
aircraft collection.
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’ procedures, 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 provided by the
McClellan Sacramento ALC, which is a generic Starfighter paint scheme that is
not representative of the aircraft’s appearance either in its original ‘bare
metal’ configuration (when first used by Dryden) or of the final white, dark
blue, and sky-blue NASA paint scheme it was retired in.. For a color
illustration of the three 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. The museum eventually plans to have 57-1303 repainted in the correct
three-color NASA livery it wore on its final flight at Dryden FRC, but due to
the considerable expense involved (estimated at about $12,000.00), this plan
has not yet been carried out.
Lockheed F-104B Starfighter SN 57-1303 /
NASA N819NA is today maintained in generally excellent static condition and is
carefully look after by its present museum crew of three. The cockpit is
authentically restored to correct functional appearance, complete with the
upwards-firing Lockheed-Stanley C-2 ejection seats (replacing the original C-1
downward-firing model that proved very dangerous to use in actual flight
operations) that were used in it, 140000-44 model seat-survival kits, and all
key instrumentation intact.
On special museum ‘open-cockpit days’
(typically, the first Saturday of each month), 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 nose gear by a
rearward retracting system. All F-104B Starfighters were initially produced
with a simplified extended canopy glazing and had two downward firing Lockheed
C-1 ejection seats (the original C-1 seat ejected downwards out of the
aircraft’s belly—a technique later found to be inherently hazardous at low
altitudes). When these seats were replaced by the safer upwards firing rocket-catapulted
C-2 seats in 1961, 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 (resulting in VERY high wing
loading of about 90 pounds per ft. sq—the highest of any aircraft ever built!)
Empty weight: 13,327 pounds
Maximum weight: 14,912 pounds
Combat weight: 17,812 pounds
Maximum speed at altitude: At least 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 (with internal fuel
only): 460 miles (internal fuel capacity
897
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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: At least a few of the
Dryden and/or Lockheed 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
partial 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’,
resulted 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 (“Venturi effect’). 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.
A
further curious fact is that 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 in the POGO strip.
However, the name
“Howland” was also the last name, interestingly enough, of a very
distinguished Lockheed Aircraft Company Flight Test Engineer whose full name
was Dr. W. L. Howland. Over the course of Dr. Howland’s 25 years of work with
Lockheed, his participation in the 5 year F-104 Starfighter Phase One flight
testing is most notable as having had critical importance in the developmental
research done on the Starfighter. A large body of Dr. Howland’s personal
records and flight test documentation was recently disclosed to the public in
which his key role in ‘making the Starfighter fly properly’ was clearly
documented.
Returning to the cartoon character, “Howland
Owl” was coincidentally 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 Army Air Base location (Edwards) in the mid 40s. On that emblem,
“Howland” is shown disconcertedly riding what was at that time a new P-80 
Shooting
Star as it plunged downwards in an uncontrolled dive (see illustration
adjacent). This use of the Howland Owl character in association with the
Edwards Test Pilot School, together with the Starfighter engine’s known
tendency to ‘howl’, and the importance of Dr. W. L. Howland in the Lockheed
F-104 flight test program presents strong circumstantial evidence for adoption
of the name apparently associated with NASA F-104B, N819NA/ 57-1303 (i.e.
“Howling Howland”).
Whether this speculation is correct or not
remains as yet to be determined, since no conclusive corroboration of this
information has yet been uncovered. It does remain a most intriguing
possibility, however, and if the story is true, it is also a most amusing
‘personalisation’ and further fascinating bit of history attached to this
uniquely important aircraft in NASA’s Dryden stable of Lockheed F-104
Starfighters, and to its status as the only two-seat ‘B’ model Starfighter ever
to be used at Dryden (NASA used several ex-Luftwaffe TF-104G two-seat trainers
at Dryden, after “Howland” was retired, and it is easy to misidentify an F-104B
model for an TF-104G, if tail numbers are not distinctly viewable).
Today, all the NASA fleet of F-104
Starfighters have been retired, most to air museums(one to the Edwards museum,
another to the
[We have at this time two patches specific
to NASA N819NA. These are now available at a cost of $5 each and both are
professionally made, embroidered emblems suitable for flight suit or
collecting:
Patch #1 Patch
#2
Also available is a CD that contains
57-1303’s printed history, as well as actual audio file recordings of the
strange and unearthly howling sounds made by the Starfighter’s General Electric
J-79 jet turbine engine. Copies of the CD may be purchased for $10 at the
museum gift shop, with all proceeds going towards the upkeep and maintenance of
this excellent example of the high speed, high altitude NASA F-104 Starfighter.
AMC CD#001 contains history, photos, and sound recordings of the J-79 engine
(see label below):
On the following page is a guide to the
color schemes worn by 59-1303 in its NASA service (reproduced with permission
of NASA Dryden artist Tony Landis):
On
the following pages appear photographs of N819NA during its 20 years of flight
test operations with NASA, at the
Original configuration,
with downward ejection seats in 1960
On the ramp at t NASA
Dryden Hanger, early 60s
On Edwards dry lake bed,
early 60s
Over
57-1304, Howland’s
sister-ship (later sold to Jordanian AF) in 70s
Test pilots Al Eggers and
Bill Dana with N819NA in 1967
Between missions on the
Edwards/Dryden ramp in early 70s
Flight test of GCGS system
in mid 70s over
Astronaut Rusty Schweikert
in aft cockpit, before a high altitude pressure suit test
NASA’s Dryden Starfighter
fleet in mid-70s, “Howland” in bare metal, upper right
“Howland” leading the
Dryden pack in late 70s, just before retirement
N819NA with NASA Dryden
crew commemorating her last flight in 1978
Glory days—chasing X-15
mother ship as it launches experimental drone over Edwards, late 70s
N819NA with famed NASA test
pilot Bill Dana (right), last flight, 1978.
“Howling Howland” at the
The Lion in Winter,
perhaps…but not ‘The End’, by a long shot!
[Note: The Aerospace Museum of California’s
website is: http://www.aerospacemuseumofcalifornia.org/
The aircraft collection is open 5 and a half days each week (Sunday from 10 to
4 PM only, and closed on Monday), and is located at the former McClellan Air
Force Base site north of Interstate-80, just off Watt Avenue North (just take
Freedom Park Drive exit off North Watt Avenue and follow it to the US Coast
Guard Hanger, which is next to the museum) in the North Highlands community
area). The address is
In
the Aerospace Museum of
California collection are 34 aircraft, including US Navy F-14D
Tomcat (VF-213, The Black Lions), the complete ‘Century Series’ aircraft of the
50s/60s, an F-111B, an A-10A Thunderbolt II, Korean War Era early jets (a rare
P-80B model is included in the collection, dating from 1944), and many other
interesting specimens of the modern air age.
The
museum has just completed an entirely new 40,000 ft sq building to house its
artifacts and its
The image below shows an
aerial view of the aircraft collection while in its temporary location on the
McClellan ramp, in 2006. Now that the new building has been completed, the
aircraft have been relocated to the adjoining area outside the new museum pavilion
on its 7 acre site.
The following images show
the new Museum, formally opened on 2 Feb 2007.
