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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1956)
o i o n o o O o o Op p c c 9 J c o c c CO o . oo o o o C3 O O O 00 Oo o O Friday, December T, ISM MBDFOHD (OFXGOfcjAIL tIBUNE THRS 0 - : a Q . o Pentagon, Air Force Indecision Added 18 Months To F1 04 Production time Oq : . " j on his own with designs for i tion had been approved, the proval from a host of Wright- J coping with every little detail ,BleaaaejBBaalBaaaaaaaaaaaaBaaaaaaaaaaaaBaBaaBaaaaaBBaaBaamaaBaaaBBa m . . Must such a fighter and for F104s were slow to come off I Patterson aeencies before he I nf Air Force 'mill snecs' is be-! I " I More Than Five Years n Used To Build F104 It is riot known if the Soviets & r O (gditor't note: This u th fourfh Of wnoi.i situation in mmtry aircraft have an airplane in tne same production )Och imperils our n- (.155 with the F104, but it 1,084 "u"1 snould not be too surprising if O By ifeBEHT S. BIRD 0 they do. The Soviets have been AND TOM iAMBEHT making remarkable aeronauti- q Now York Herald Tsjun News I cal strides, apparently not too (., aervico mucn noouieu uy niuctwiw", Washington Give the F-104 a couple1 of seconds at feill thrOt tl urittt rut fVl and ee(ife nose pointed afc tUe sky j fame Irom American puots O and itQvill climD right straight had been fighting the agile So O up into the 9pp$r statosphere at viet MIGlos over the Yalu river G000 mile? a, houre And even in Korea. They wanted a light is aCJfcret. tape and paperwork Idea From Pilots . The idea for the "Starfighter" new lightweight o. taanutacuired oy the country followed the Korean air ThisC fJthter, Locloieed .Circrift Corp q been called 'The Missile With a rrMan In It." I tude and a lot of speed." j..: Ui, "Star- iNO aircrait uesiyiitri hi iw has O C Only carnival man could de- war more ciosoiy man u. (Kelly) Johnson, Lockheed s. fa mous vice president in charge of research and development. and his engineering mind had O scribe Jt.e r-iu won justice, u bcen busv on an aeron9llticai low 0.0 clean anfl sum ana eiue. j drcama ast Jjg,)t hish.iiyig Gn. at s:rme0 ''mu , mf I fighter not for Korean combat inline. n n uc .u. blll for protection of this coun- fly. A realneleg;rt plane; a real . . . danriv o ahpad." Itcan flash fraight up more What happened to Johnson's than 2 rSiles, and sVfeak along j dreaoi its ups. and downs is s "straight and levef," as pilots sayat alSmt Mach 2, or twice lheLsi.ed of sound. c The Airof,rce0Chief of Staff, . 7, Gerf? Na'ian F. Twining, matter--ftfctly calls it ,vthe fastest and trtghest-flyingofigijter anywhere G in the skj-.'o b o 0 Airmon Qjow 0 0 ftirntn oegin to glow when a th" ta abSu fhis flying sti letto, and they" iell"a!)Out how (f. fast it ime into being. ? How fast?00 At a tWie when the Soviets are crowding this country for air siipremac;. it took five ye;ars and foqr monthsOto bring out the F1Q$ frcfti first design study to first production modr! flight. QBy Airo Force Bnd Pentagon itandards, that is indeed fast "Ietimg."0as Oie 'developinent 3 cycte is called. . G But the feanufacturer of the Q "gtarfighter"se.-s this lead time (as excsive, ti:mt it was '"a vr,y long spanPfor evea today's Q complex, highgErfomancet air craft." O Er 0 In Set, the xAckhecd people p sa1 that the F-04 could have been-rolledQ off cUie produdion line Vome 18 (jnonth? arlier if they had not been neld up by Pentagon and Air Force oindc e?sion Aligning bSvJi tup1 level delays Snd steady stream of fitful little bueeaucratic road- CD blocks, o r c- . w set forth here in terms of time spans with some slight over lapping, in the life history of the F104. First Time. Span (30 months: In September. 1950, the Air Force asked American aircrait manufacturers to submit designs for a comparatively heavy all weather Interceptor fighter with good range, a completely auto matic fire control system and good protection for the pilot. Though , such a plane vas con siderably more weighty and less dazzling in prospect than the Johnsonr dream airplane, Lockheed entered the design competition arid won. The Air Force authorized the company to begin '"Phase I" pre liminary designs for the new fighters. Two and one-half months later (one year after first inviting competition for design of such a plane) the Air Force cancelled the Lockheed design authorization. In other words, the Air Force had changed its mind. Further re evaluation of the Korean air war experience indicated that any new fighter- should have more performance, at the ex pense of, range. ... Johnson revived hi dream. High performance without great emphasis on range could mean a lightweight fighter, just what he had in mind. He went ahead on his own with designs for just such a fighter and for months he pressed the Pentagon and Air Force to accept them. In December, 1952, the Air Force told Lockheed to start de signing a prototype lightweight fighter and in March, 1953, au thorized the company to build, two airplanes. Flown in 12 Month Second Time Span (12 months): In contrast to the .30 months it took the Pentagon and Air Force to make up their minds on what they "wanted in the way of a new fighter, and to start building something, Lockheed made and flew, the first prototype F104 in just one year flat. Lockheed did this, first, by forming a task force of engi neers divorced as much as pos sible from all interference and assigned it one jorj to meet a first flight date, March 1, 1954. Not only a date, but an hour: 9 a.m. Both date and hour -were met. Second, Lockheed recruited for its task force the. most cap able men available. - .Third,- the company gave the task- force a precise set of re quirements, not only as to schedule, but for performance and costs as well. fourth, having provided for the task force an "environment of freedom," Lockheed gave its chief the maximum authority to do the job as he thought best. Getting out prototypes in a hurry was nothing new at Lockheed. In World War II the company built and flew a pro totype F80 jet in 147 days. Asked for Go-Ahtad Third . Time Span (nine months): Confident that the F104 design would be success ful, Lockheed proposed in Sep tember, 1953, six-months before the prototype was finished and flown,, that the Air Force issue a go-ahead for producing F104s. But for nine months the Penta gon and Air Force backed and filled, waited and processed paper work arid studies on the matter. The question of the right jei ) engine perplexed Washington; ! whether or not to take a risk on a not-fully-tried power plant, j And' the armament. Guns? Rock-1 ets? If rockets, what size? And, as always, these were money 1 problems. ' . ! During this interlude of inde cision, Lockheed, did what oth er aircraft makers have done on occasion to keep programs mov- j ing and hold talented staffs in-! tact it went ahead on its own, preparing for production. In June, 1954. . the company was authorized to begin limited pro- j duction. i . Fourth Time - Span (20VS ! months): Even though produc- j F104s were slow to come off the line. For one thing, Washing ton was having money trouble and could not authorize- Lock heed to do much more than buy certain equipment and raw ma terials whiph must be ordered far in advance of delivery. The first production model F104 did not fly until June, 1956. The Present: Today the rate of "Starfire" production is a military secret but it is certain that not more than a relative few of the wonder fighters have been turned out. Certainly pro duction will be . stepped tip soon. The Pentagon and Air Force cannot be blamr-d entirely' for money problems like those which added to the F104 lead time.- But they are blamed vig orously by aircrait riakers gen erally for -lengthening lead time through, indecision ' and red tape, and for "getting ton. many people into the act" in turning out wsrplanes, .Most aircraft industry execu tives interviewed complained, for example, about what one called the "dictatorial", attitude of the Air Force's Air Material Command at Wright-Patterson Air. Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. As of April this year,' the Air Material Command organization chart listed 72 offices, and divi sions, . the great majority, of which deal with the aircraft in dustry and are involved in nearly every aircraft project sponsored by the. Air Force. It routinely is necessary for an airplane maker to obtain ap- Patterson agencies before he can proceed, for example, with an idea or proposal which he is convinced Will improve the air craft he is building for the Air Force. As for red tape a top air craft engineer told this story: One of his draftsmen was as signed one day to make a rou tine drawing of a simple T-pipe fitting in a new fighter. It took, him about two hours to com plete the drawing on a sheet of paper eight by 11 inches. The Air Force requires that all such drawings be titled according to its specifications, so the drafts man -went to the specifications to get the title- requirements. The first set of specifications, provided part of the require ments and referred him to another set. The second set of specifications referred the draftsman to another volume. After two days of pouring over specifications, the drafts man obtained all. the require ments for the title to his draw ing and returned to his drawing board. But putting the title on his eight by 11-inch piece of paper became a problem. The title turned out to be so volumi nous that it covered nearly two thirds of the sheet of paper, and shoved the drawing itself right off the sheet. He wound up by getting a larger sheet and doing it all over again. "This," the engineer ex plained, .'is a small example of what we call "horrible trivi alities.' " "The man-hours wasted in of Air Force 'mill specs' is be yond all count. And this wasted time means longer lead time in ! getting out airplanes." . j "Look at it," he explained. 1 pointing to a color picture of ; the F104, soaring sleek and pristine in its home in tht blue , yonder. "Born out of long and heavy labor in a bureaucratic quag-; mire.". - Next: Ponligon Rogimenta- ! tion Hinders Electron! Da- j velopment. I Copyright 1956. 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