Lockheed F-104 VTOL Fighter Concept (1962)

Scale: 1/72
Initial Release: 2001
Medium: Styrene/Resin
Kit Rarity: 2

About the Design

Yet another in a long line of bizarre Vertical Take-Off & Landing (VTOL) concepts was this plan for turning an F-104 Starfighter into a supersonic helicopter. Proposed by Ryan Aeronautical engineer Peter Girard (who had flown the actual Ryan X-13 Vertijet), the plan called for replacing the Starfighter's stubby wings with a triangular dorsal-mounted airfoil. The airfoil was to spin like a helicopter blade, the tips of the triangle tilting to provide the necessary lift.  Once the craft was airborne, the triangle would lock into a straight horizontal position and serve as a traditional "wing" for conventional flight.

Fortunately, the development of the vertical take-off Hawker Harrier later in the decade precluded this seemingly suicidal concept from actually being pursued.

About the Kit

This resin conversion kit was released by Igor Shestakov's Unicraft company in 2001. It consisted of just the four-piece "wing" and the dorsal-mounted support column; the rest was just the injected-plastic 1/72-scale F-104 model kit of your choice.

In this case, the "base" model is a 21st Century edition of the F-104-C released by Revell of Germay. The model is built as an "operational" version of the proposed F-104 VTOL.