Starfighter affair

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Lockheed F-104G "Starfighter"

The Starfighter affair ( see also Lockheed scandal ) was a political affair in the Federal Republic of Germany , which, owing to the circumstances of the procurement of fighter aircraft Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter" for the Bundeswehr developed. In essence, the affair concerned two interrelated aspects. On the one hand was questioned why the Bundeswehr Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss , against the advice of some experts an obviously immature aircraft ordered in large quantities, and on the other stood logically the question of whether in the procurement - as in other countries as well - corruption in the game was. Strauss could not prove any benefit acceptance in connection with the procurement of the "Starfighter".

history

In 1957, when looking for a modern supersonic interceptor, the German Air Force had the choice between the US Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter" (top speed of the record version around 2260 km / h) and the Grumman F11F "Tiger" (top speed around 1170 km / h) km / h), the French “Mirage III” (top speed around 2150 km / h) and the British Saunders-Roe SR.177 (P177) (top speed around 2400 km / h), which is still in the planning phase . According to Lieutenant General Josef Kammhuber , the Inspector of the Air Force , an all-weather fighter was needed, ideally with a very short runway and a Mach number of over 2, in order to be able to effectively fight supersonic Soviet bombers such as the Myasishchev M-50 . Such an aircraft did not exist in the late 1950s. On behalf of Kammhuber, Walter Krupinski carried out comparison flights of the two American models in the USA in December 1957 and in May 1958 in Villaroche with the Mirage. Based on these tests, Krupinski recommended purchasing the F-104. Kammhuber also favored the "Starfighter".

On this recommendation, against the advice of some experts, the Federal Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss proposed the "Starfighter" as a future interceptor. With his quick decision, Strauss also aimed at promoting the aviation industry in southern Germany, which was to build most of the combat aircraft under license. Furthermore, he wanted to ensure the nuclear participation of the Federal Republic of Germany by arming the aircraft with US atomic bombs, which was planned in the NATO order . In October 1958, Strauss informed Lockheed that he had chosen the "Starfighter". After two days of deliberations, on November 6, 1958 , the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag unanimously approved the "[...] procurement of the F 104 aircraft (Lockheed 'Starfighter') subject to a satisfactory solution to the price and licensing issues".

defects

Even before commissioning, attempts were made to remedy serious defects that had occurred in the prototypes. In addition, the prototypes of the German version got a reinforced fuselage, a different engine and completely revised navigation equipment , which made the machine heavier and more complicated. Although it had to be clear from the start that a lot of money was being spent on an aircraft that was actually not fully developed, the F-104G (G for "Germany") was finally ordered.

When the first F-104G was commissioned in February 1960, there were glaring defects in terms of manufacturing quality and elementary functions. The deficiencies were partly due to design errors, some could never be remedied and dragged on through the entire operating life of the Starfighter.

The first thing that was noticed was that some instruments in the cockpit were not working. This was complained about and was later rectified. On February 21, 1962, Lieutenant Schultz transferred the first F-104F to the 31 Boelcke fighter-bomber squadron at the Nörvenich air base . On May 22nd, the failure of the afterburner resulted in the first fatal accident in Germany. Even before that, engine failures and a break in the nose landing gear had occurred during test operation , which was due to a design flaw.

By June 1962, enough F-104 had been procured to be able to form the first squadron . To mark this occasion, a ceremony and a flight day with aerobatic performances by an F-104F squadron with four aircraft were to take place in Nörvenich on June 20 . On June 19, 1962, one day before the planned event, the four F-104s crashed due to a pilot's error, killing all four pilots of the aerobatic team. This was the second fatal accident involving star fighters in Germany within a few weeks. The air show planned for June 20 has been canceled. Nevertheless, on June 20, the F-104G was officially put into service with the "Boelcke" squadron.

In 1965 alone there were 27 starfighter accidents with 17 fatalities. After another, some fatal accidents, the entire F-104 fleet was awarded the Air Force in the same year twice a complete grounding ( "aircraft grounding"). However, various measures also failed to bring the jet into a permanently flight-safe condition - at least not in the version supplied with American technology.

Lockheed scandal

Even before further accidents happened, the former defense minister Franz Josef Strauss had serious problems because of the "starfighter". After revelations by the news magazine Der Spiegel in 1966, the public suddenly became interested in the circumstances surrounding the conclusion of the contract with Lockheed - the main question asked was why the technically clearly better “Mirage” had not been bought.

It became known that, as an advocate for nuclear armament in Germany, Strauss wanted an aircraft that could carry nuclear weapons “to the Urals ”. However, Paris was not ready for a Franco-German nuclear alliance. The Americans, on the other hand, promised Strauss that they would also make nuclear warheads available in an emergency. It was also known that Lockheed paid bribes to top government officials when it exported the Starfighter to other countries . Since Strauss also favored the Mirage before his visit to Lockheed and spoke out in favor of the F-104 after his return, the suspicion quickly arose that the German minister had been bribed (see Lockheed scandal ). A corresponding investigative committee of the Bundestag came to the conclusion that no bribery could be proven. The charge was therefore dropped.

On August 25, 1966, Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel dismissed the Air Force inspector, Lieutenant General Werner Panitzki , at his request, as he had criticized the procurement of the fighter plane as a "purely political decision" in an interview. The commodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 “Richthofen” , Erich Hartmann , also retired.

The reasons for the frequent crashes and the deaths of numerous pilots remained failures and defects in all areas of the aircraft. In particular, the electronics, the engine and the associated hydraulics caused problems, and deficiencies in the rescue equipment were not rectified immediately. Several factors can be named as reasons for this:

  • Staff shortage: The Starfighter was introduced to the entire Air Force and later also to naval aviators within a few years . Pilots as well as mechanics were exposed to an enormous stress of retraining. In addition, due to the economic miracle and the recent war, the Bundeswehr was not an attractive job, which is why around 10,000 mechanics were missing. The Luftwaffe even ordered that special components no longer routinely be serviced, but only repaired when errors were found, as the mechanics regularly made errors during maintenance.
  • Different versions: The individual machines already differ from the factory in terms of electronics, software and other equipment. The changes made later to fix bugs and improve flight safety increased the differences and led to even more confusion.
  • Infrastructure: Most air bases of the Air Force were at the time of delivery of the Starfighters still under construction. In many places there was only one large maintenance hangar, the so-called “shipyard”. The planes were more or less in the open all year round and were exposed to wind, weather, heat and cold, which put a lot of stress on the electronics.
  • Wrong components: For reasons of cost, many components were manufactured differently by the European manufacturers than intended by Lockheed . Hydraulic lines were not bent, for example, but kinked or welded.
  • Bird strikes , bad weather or grounding, and collisions with other aircraft were also responsible for many crashes.
  • Design: The Starfighter was developed for the US Air Force as a Mach-2 fast day interceptor for high altitudes. The construction was neither suitable for the Central European weather nor for use as a fighter-bomber, which was intended by the Bundeswehr. This was also evident in the brief deployment of star fighters as part of the war in Vietnam between 1965 and 1967.
  • Sea rescue equipment : When submerged in the water, the inflated collar and the lifeboat could tear off the life jacket, the fasteners separating the parachute were difficult to loosen. For rescue at sea, the pilots were only equipped with marine radios and emergency radios after 1966 and survival at sea was trained by all pilots.

At the beginning of 1966, the Air Force Inspector Panitzki, together with the special representative for the F-104 weapon system, Major General Dietrich Hrabak, defined numerous individual measures for improvement. However, the bureaucracy stood in the way of implementation. The successor as Air Force Inspector General Johannes Steinhoff received the necessary powers to rebuild the Air Force in the autumn of 1966. This included the introduction of a technical command post in the squadrons, the centralization of logistics at association level and the improvement of the training of technicians.

Despite the many crashes, the aircraft was popular with some pilots due to its climb and general flight performance. In public, however, the machine retained its bad reputation until it was finally decommissioned and was referred to as a widow maker . Up to 1991, 916 starfighters were in service with the German armed forces, 300 were lost in accidents, of which 269 in crashes. Including the last accident in 1984, 116 pilots had a fatal accident (108 Germans and eight Americans).

Cinematic reception

Trivia

Captain Heltzel's emergency landing in Nörvenich in 1965 was subsequently entered in the Guinness Book of Records in 1988 , as the landing speed of 435 km / h was the highest speed at which an aircraft was ever successfully touched down.

The British musician Robert Calvert released an LP in 1974 under the name Captain Lockheed And The Starfighters , on which he dealt extensively with the subject and described the affair as Aero-Spaceage Inferno (song title).

The German electrical band Welle: Erdball has memorialized the death of First Lieutenant Joachim von Hassel, the son of Kai-Uwe von Hassel , in their song Starfighter F-104G .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bundeswehr / Kammhuber: The little general . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1957 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Kurt Braatz: Walter Krupinski. Fighter pilot, secret agent, general. 2010, p. 211ff.
  3. ↑ Armor: Who is closest to the enemy? In: Der Spiegel . No. 36 , 1958 ( online ).
  4. ↑ A certain flutter . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1966 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Arms Orders: California Prices . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1959 ( online ).
  6. ↑ to the aerobatic team crash website of the Air Force
  7. ↑ Crashes of Bundeswehr aircraft
  8. ↑ on the safety of the star fighter ( memento of the original from November 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.flugzeugtechnik.info
  9. ↑ The Starfighter becomes a widow maker "60 x Germany"
  10. ↑ A certain flutter . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1966 ( online ).
  11. ^ Arms Sales in Germany (Nov. 6, 1975). United States Department of State , November 6, 1975, accessed April 3, 2010 .
  12. ^ Arms Sales in Germany (January 6, 1976). United States Department of State , January 6, 1976, accessed April 3, 2010 .
  13. ↑ Julia Egleder: Saved to Death . In: Association of Reservists of the German Federal Armed Forces e. V. (Ed.): .Loyal The Magazine for Security Policy No. 5/2016 . S. 25th ff .
  14. ↑ Heiner Möllers: General Steinhoff and the Air Force . In: Military History. Journal for Historical Education , ed. from the Military History Research Office , Potsdam, issue 4/2006, pp. 14-17.
  15. ↑ Starfighter accidents. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012 ; Retrieved February 1, 2011 .