The XF-104 prototype was born from these principles, powered by a General Electric J79 afterburning turbojet producing 15,600 pounds of thrust. This gave the Starfighter a blistering top speed of ...

The origin of the XF-103 was shared with the origins of the F-102 and F-104 jets. In 1949, the then-nascent U.S. Air Force requested a supersonic interceptor, a project that came to be known ...