KerbalX

The F-104 Starfighter on display in the SPH.

• After the nose, I went straight to the engine and the tailfin. When choosing the engine, I was stuck between the Panther and the Whiplash. I then chose the panther since it was shorter in length, could switch between supersonic and regular mode, and had a higher vectoring range than the Whiplash. As for the tailfin, I had to move it back as much as possible just for the tip of the rudder to be placed further back than the engine tip - just like the real Starfighter. After that was completed, I added a battery and a drag chute.
• The real-life Starfighter’s fuselage was long, but I didn’t want to make the replica’s fuselage took long or else it would look ridiculous and flimsy later. So, I worked on the engines and had their tanks end where the tailfin began. I then placed the engines on the tanks, moved them closer to the fuselage, and bent them downward.

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To extend the plane’s range - and since a lot of pictures of the F-104 I saw had wingtip fuel tanks - I added those to the craft. After the test cruise, I configured the fuel flow priority so that the external tanks will drain first.

• The AG5 (Action Group 5) button will toggle the crossfeed and switch the fuel flow from the external tanks to the main fuselage. Hitting it again will switch it back to the external tanks, and so on. If you’re unsure about which tanks are draining now, right-click on a fuselage or external tank and see which one of them is draining.
• The AG0 (Action Group 0) button will detach the external tanks from the plane. I set that button farther away from AG5 to reduce the risk of accidental detachments.
• This plane starts with 1120 fuel units total (out of 2010), and the external tanks hold 300 of them. Assuming you don’t touch the AG5 button at all, you can lose the tanks once you hit 820 fuel units left to shed some dead weight - and extend your range.

Someone in the manufacturing plant screwed up the cockpit button labels and put the ENGINE ON/OFF label on the button that actually detaches the fuel tanks. The KAA investigators thought Jeb was being dumb, but the owner’s manual was found to have not matched what was displayed inside the cockpit. Further testing of the aircraft’s controls later proved that Jeb was telling the truth about the buttons being mislabelled.

• In other words, anyone could have gotten it wrong.

Less than five minutes down, and the Starfighter has already cleared Alt Test Mountains.

Flying over the ocean at 9.975 km altitude.

At the 33-minute mark, the plane on autopilot was picking up speed. When this picture was taken, the Starfighter was flying at 800 m/s at an altitude of 10.1 km.

• This phenomenon reminded me of my F-16 replica from a year ago. It started out slow at full throttle in wet (supersonic) mode and the altitude locked, but in the end it was flying just fast enough to catch fire.
• With such an inconsistent performance, I don’t know if I could even log recommended cruise stats since they rely on consistency. At least I can jot down how the flight began vs how it ended.

50 units of fuel left, and the Starfighter is flying at 814 m/s. Jeb cut off the engines and looked for a nice flat spot to land his jet, and there were plenty of them here.

• I’m sure the plane could go farther if the empty tanks were detached earlier, but I didn’t set the fuel flow priority until after this flight. You can expect a better performance this time.

Jeb doing a smooth landing with the F-104 Starfighter, and with the aid of its drag chute. Both tanks were recovered without a scratch, although KSP personnel have argued that Jeb should have ditched them and increased his range.

• At the same time, the tank’s design engineers were rumored to have contemplated installing parachutes that would deploy upon detachment from the plane. Perhaps that can be done in the next upgrade.