This may be another of my obscure questions nobody cares about but me. But as an avid F-104 fan, I’ve always wondered why so many of them, regardless of wing or squadron or use, had their stubby wings painted white. Was this a safety thing? I’m asking that because on the flying D model I was around most, one of the first things done upon parking the bird was to apply not only the FOD covers on the intakes, but long, flat strips of red plastic about 1.5 inches wide, with clip-on backs, that protected the sharp leading edge from damage and, even more, protected us from getting our heads creased on the almost invisible edge. The wafer thin wing – 4 inches thick at its fattest point – was, I’ve read, 1/16th of an inch in diameter on leading and trailing edges.
And, on the subject, since I had access to that airplane, I often went into the hangar and just inspected it for modeling and plain curiosity. The intake spikes on the 104, I was surprised to learn, are generally accurate on most models. They are simple teardrop shapes with the pointy edge out. Why are they always black (or almost always)? I found they were coated, along with the intake lips, with what looked and felt like common roof tar. It got soft when heated. The intake spikes themselves were made of fiberglass and sounded like hollow wood when you thumped them. Was this a pre-composite way to combat heat of air friction at high speed?
The F-104, as impractacle as it was – which is why it doesn’t have any stellar combat history – has fascinated me since I was a small boy.
Hmmmm I don’t know the answer to your question. At the airbase that I work at we have a F-104 Starfighter as a gateguard, and it has white wings.
Like you I think the Starfighter is beautiful in its own way.
Hope someone will have a good answer to this.
Since the only F-104’s I’ve seen with white wings had natural metal fuselages, it would make sense that the wings were sealed to make them smoother.
I’m sure the experts will speak up soon as I’d like to know this also!
I think Mojodoctor is right. It may have also been a insulator to reduce hi speed flutter or vibration…??? ummm
A little known fact about those white wings is, they were only white on top. The bottom was left natural metal. I realized this when I looked at the Air Force Tech Order 1-1-4 “Aircraft Finishes” and it only specifies white on the top. Then sure enough I went looking for pictures of F-104’s showing the bottom of the wings and they were all bare metal.
Well, the 104 did have that blown flap system in which the wing had a zillion tiny holes that had to be kept clean. Maybe that has something to do with it, too. You’re right, though, it’s only on bare metal birds. It seems that even NF-104A rocket Starfighters had white wings, as well. How many were there, three? Two? I’ve seen one NF with white wings I know. Rest, of course, is NM.
Sorry, I don’t have the answers to your questions. Just posting this for illustration.
Ah, that reminded me of something else: I’ve got pix of German birds in green/gray camo with the white wings. In fact, I built the Hasegawa 1/48 F-104G OOB as one of those planes. Canadian NM CF-104s had white wings, but dunno about the painted birds.
I’ve been told by a reliable source (actually, a former professional ramp rat) that the large quantities of hot bleed air, used to lower landing speeds, tended to erode the bare aluminum surface of the wings. The gloss white was actually a special hard epoxy finish used to protect the underlaying airframe. BTW, the bottoms were painted the same light gray as the radome. Later painted schemes apparemtly did not require these extreme measures.
Or so I’ve been told
Phil
Let’s add a little to the confusion here[:-,]: Dutch Starfighters (F-104Gs) were delivered in an overall grey paint scheme. Later, this was changed to a gray and green camouflage scheme. At no point were the wings painted white. I don’t know if there was a white epoxy layer beneath the paintjob … Sure is a slick bird though, no matter what color.[8D]
are you building one?if you still need to know go to yahoo.com maybe they will answer that question!good luck p.s. check you e-mail I answered your question about the japenese zero canopy!when you get it, e-mail me back! thanks-brad
The black intake cone or spikes are there to produce a shock wave to reduce the incoming air to sub-mach speeds inside the intake. This also had the effect of raising the air pressure going to the engine for greater power and efficiency.