The F-104 was designed squarely on the basis of the Korean war air combat experience. Lockheed's 'Kelly' Johnson gave the US Air Force what its pilots asked for: high speed at all costs. The resulting aircraft had an optimized needle-like body and the smallest, thinnest, and sharpest-edged wing ever put on a fighter -- this being necessary to reduce drag. The production 'A' model first flew in 1956. The aircraft was so fast that speed had to be red-lined at Mach 2 to avoid excessive heating of the airframe. Unfortunately, "faster" is not always "better" and the tiny wings of the F-104 caused it to have abysmally poor dogfighting capabilities, which severely limited its value as a fighter. The USAF never adopted the Starfighter, but the German Luftwaffe ordered the avionically upgraded F-104G as a speedy strike aircraft, and Japan (1200 F-104J's) and Canada (200 CF-104's) became customers as well. Many NATO countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, and Norway all used the F-104, but are replacing it with the F-16.
