XF-104 37786 with Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier wearing a pressure suit

XF-104, construction number 083-1001, serial number 53-7786, built by Lockheed
aerodynamic test bed, February 28, 1954 unplanned taxi lift-off with Anthony W. "Tony" LeVier; first flight March 4, 1954
crashed on July 11, 1957 near Mojave, California due to uncontrollable tail flutter resulting from a unsecured fuselage fuel tank cap coming off and striking the vertical stabilizer
testpilot Bill Park ejected safely.

Construction of the first prototype XF-104 (53-7786) began in the summer of 1953 at Lockheed's Burbank, California factory.
This aircraft initially was powered by a non-afterburning Buick-built Wright J-65-B-3 turbojet. Construction of the second prototype (53-7787, the armament test bed) began in the autumn of 1953,
but work on this aircraft proceeded at a slower pace in case revisions were needed. The air intakes of the two XF-104s were of fixed geometry without presence of half-cones,
since the J-65-powered aircraft was incapable of Mach-2 performance.

copyright © Lockheed archive