Major General Albert Boyd receives the "Order of Starfighters" certificate number #3 on October 9, 1956

YF-104A construction number 183-1016, model 183-93-02, US serial number 55-2970, built by Lockheed
first flight February 17, 1956, ready for delivery September 18, 1956, acceptance by USAF September 18, 1956
delivery date January 31, 1957, and used as BLC test bed, crashed May 25, 1957 near Barstow, pilot Arthur Joseph Peterson was safe, written off
It crashed 12:20 hours PST at San Bernardino, 20 N Miles NW of Camp Irwin on Leach Gunnery Range, in California during an gun shooting test
mission after encountering a compressor failure. Pilot, Lockheed Engineering Test Pilot, Arthur Joseph Peterson tried several airstarts which were
not successful. Then he ejected safely at 2.500 feet
Aircraft took off from AF Plant 42, Lockheed, California, a flight which lasted 21 minutes before the crash.
After the accident the engine was shipped to Evandale for study, results are unknown.
Previous testflights have shown that gun debris (links and shell cases) from the T-17 E-3 gun when fired in flight from the F-104A strike the fuselage
and ventral fin in a random manner from an area in line with the engine inlet air ducts aft. A fix to this problem consisting of installing an 8"x16"
vertical steal deflector plate in front of the shell case and link ejection chutes had completed wind tunnel tests and was being flight tested.
Tests were not complete but were not progressing satisfactorily as the fuselage and ventral fin continued to receive random strikes from the gun debris.
The accident occurred during the fifth flight (fourth flight that the guns were fired) in a planned series of flights to test the deflector plate.
The test aircraft was F-104A 55-2970 on bailment to Lockheed Aircraft Corp (LAC) flown by Peterson, an LAC Engineering test pilot.
The chase aircraft was an USAF F-100 from Edwards Air Force Base flown by Capt Carson, an ARDC Engineering test pilot.
The purpose of the flight was to fire a two second burst in a two "G" pull out at 400 Kts, then fire the remainder of a full ammunition load (760 rounds) in a two second bursts at one "G".

copyright © Lockheed archive via Chris Baird