The F-104's razor honed appearance provides a natural invitation for descriptive superlatives. Precisely engineered, the Starfighter's shape is functional - aesthetics notwithstanding. It's built to go! To go high, fast and far with varied offensive payloads. It started in 1952, when the US Air Force called for a daylight air superiority fighter subordinating other criteria to flight performance. Lockheed looked at scores of designs: delta wings, swept wings, flush cockpits, wingtip-mounted vertical fins, rocket propulsion, low mounted horizontal stabilizer, vee windshields. Weight went up to about 50,000 pounds, dropped as low as 8,000 pounds. Out of the design, wind tunnel and rocket flight studies came a new wing shape; the trapezoid. Its span - 7.5 feet on each side of the fuselage - was startling enough. Added to the break from conventional aerodynamics trends was a notable anhedral applied to the wing. The USAF signed a contract with Lockheed for manufacture of a prototype airplane, the XF-104, in March, 1953. It was made and flown in less than a year, taking to the air for the first time in February, 1954 at Edward's AFB, California. Although the F-104 was designed using the General Electric J79 engine, the XF-104 was powered by a Buick J65 engine. This was done because the J79 engine was not ready when the F-104 airframe was. Later models did use the J79 engine. Designers went up to the J79 engine due to its thrust-to-weight ratio, small frontal area, afterburning and specific fuel consumption. To accommodate the larger engine and increased fuel supplies, fuselage length was extended to 54 feet, 9 inches. All models starting with the F-104A also incorporated the spiked cone engine air inlets - multi-shock intakes whose bleed and bypass systems match all flight regime airflow requirements. Air Defense Command orders for single seat F-104A daylight interceptor placed first Starfighter's in optional service in January, 1958.