General Background

The F-104 Starfighter was a revolutionary design with short razor-sharp wings. It was the first aircraft to be able to maintain Mach 2 not just in short bursts. The Starfighter shattered speed and rate of climb records that still are impressive today. This extremely high speed earned the plane the nickname "The Missile With A Man In It". Because of financial considerations 15 or more countries purchased the F-104. The Starfighter flew with the USAF in 1958 and the last airplane was decommissioned in Italy in 2004.

The Aircraft

In 1963 Lockheed delivered three purpose-built single seat F-104G Starfighters to NASA and re-designated them F-104N. Tail numbers were 011, 012 and 013. On June 8, 1966 the second North American XB-70A Valkyrie was on a public advertising photo shoot with 013 as chase plane. Speculation is 013 was flipped over by the vortices of the massive XB-70A and sheered off both Valkyrie vertical stabilizers. The F104N immediately burst into flames killing the test pilot. The Valkyrie also crashed killing its co-pilot.