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{{main article|Lockheed XF-104}}
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, the chief engineer at [[Skunk Works|Lockheed's Skunk Works]], visited 15 USAF bases in Korea in November 1951 and spoke with fighter pilots about what sort of aircraft they wanted.<ref name="Davies2014p7">Davies 2014, p. 7.</ref><ref name="Pace1992p10">Pace 1992, p. 10.</ref> At the time, the U.S. pilots were confronting the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15|MiG-15]] with [[North American F-86 Sabre]]s, and many felt that the MiGs were superior to the larger and more complex American design. The pilots requested a small and simple aircraft with excellent performance, especially high speed and altitude capabilities.<ref name="Bowman2000p26">Bowman 2000, p. 26.</ref><ref name="Upton2003p8">Upton 2003, p. 8.</ref> Armed with this information, Johnson immediately started the design of such an aircraft on his return to the United States. In March 1952, his team was assembled; they studied several aircraft designs, ranging from small designs at {{convert|8000|lb|kg|abbr=on}},<ref name="Upton2003p9">Upton 2003, p. 9.</ref> to fairly large ones at {{convert|50000|lb|kg|abbr=on}}.<ref name="Upton2003p10">Upton 2003, p. 10.</ref> In order to achieve the desired performance, Lockheed chose a minimalist approach: a design that would achieve high performance by wrapping the lightest, most aerodynamically efficient airframe possible around a single powerful engine. The engine chosen was the new [[General Electric J79]] turbojet, an engine of dramatically improved performance in comparison with contemporary designs. The small L-246 design powered by a single J79 remained essentially identical to the Model 083 Starfighter as eventually delivered.
Johnson presented the design to the Air Force on 5 November 1952, and they were interested enough to create a general operating requirement for a lightweight fighter to supplement and ultimately replace the yet-to-fly [[North American F-100]]. Three additional companies were named finalists for the requirement: [[Republic Aviation Company|Republic Aviation]] with the AP-55, an improved version of its prototype [[Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor|XF-91 Thunderceptor]]; [[North American Aviation]] with the NA-212, which eventually evolved into the [[North American F-107|F-107]]; and [[Northrop Corporation]] with the [[Northrop N-102 Fang|N-102 Fang]], another J79-powered design. Although all three finalists' proposals were strong, Lockheed had what proved to be an insurmountable head start, and was granted a development contract in March 1953 for two [[prototype]]s; these were given the designation "[[Lockheed XF-104|XF-104]]".<ref name="Bowman2000p32">Bowman 2000, p. 32.</ref><ref name="Pace1992p15"/>
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