"Star Fighter"
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Designed by Kelly
Johnson and the famed Lockheed Skunk Works in the early 1950s, the F-104
was introduced to the world as "the missile with a man in it." The
striking Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was unlike anything the world had ever
seen and promised to be an ultimate interceptor that was small, light in
weight and had stunning straight-line performance. The prototype first
flew in 1954 and went supersonic only eight years after the X-1 first
broke the sound barrier, but it was four years before the F-104A was operational. The early 104s were easily the hottest aircraft around and in
1958 specially prepared Starfighters set new world speed and
altitude records of 1,400 mph and 91,250 feet. The F-104 was never agile
enough to become what its designers wanted but it did evolve into a
sophisticated all-weather ground attack aircraft. There were 2,439 F-104s built in eight countries between 1954 and 1979. An open edition print signed by the artist and printed on acid-free heavyweight matte paper. Size is 18"x 24" including a 1" white border. $49.95 + $7.95 shipping and handling. |
