JF-104 Starfighter FG-961 #55-2961 ca. 1962

With a name like Starfighter, F-104s were destined to serve NASA in the extreme regime of high-speed flight research. NASA flew Lockheed F-104 Starfighter aircraft in a wide variety of missions beginning in August 1956. Over the next 38 years, 11 were operated by NASA at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., with the last Starfighter flight taking place in February 1994. NASA Starfighters provided flight research data on everything from aircraft handling characteristics, such as roll coupling, to reaction control system research.

With the approaching X-15 rocket-powered research aircraft program in the late 1950's, research pilots needed experience in flying with reaction control systems, which are key to spacecraft control and maneuverability. It was realized that normal aircraft control surfaces had little or no effect in the thin air of the upper stratosphere and that any aircraft operating at extremely high altitudes would need to be equipped with a reaction control system (RCS). A modified version of the Bell X-1 was used for initial RCS tests, but was grounded after technical problems. It was replaced in 1959 with a NASA-modified Lockheed F-104A (55-2961), which carried RCS systems on its wing tips and in the fuselage nose. This aircraft (designated JF-104) achieved a maximum altitude of 83,000 feet (25,300 m) during the test program. Pilots who flew this aircraft included Neil Armstrong, who gained valuable experience in using the RCS. Pilots complained that the instrument displays were difficult to read and were not accurate enough for the critical zoom climb profiles required to reach high altitudes.

This photo has been taken around 1962. Even after delivery it was still carrying the USAF serials together with the NASA insignes inside the yellow tail band.

YF-104A 55-2961 was later coded "N818NA" and can be found preserved today inside the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, USA.