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 Richard Heppe (at right), a long-time design engineer for Lockheed Skunk Works, was recognized by the National Aeronautics Association in November with an NAA Elder Statesman of Aviation Award for his lifetime contribution to aerospace. Heppe retired from Lockheed in 1988 after working forty-one years on thirty-five aircraft and seventy-five preliminary designs. One of his first projects involved the F-104 Starfighter in the early 1950s; his last was the YF-22 in the late 1980s.
“I remember flying into Dayton on a snowy December night in 1952 with Kelly Johnson to show the Air Force our design for an operational, Mach 2, air-to-air fighter,” Heppe said during his acceptance speech. “At the time, only rocket-powered and research machines were exploring the Mach 1.5 area, and we had never even conducted a Mach 2 wind tunnel test. When we were awarded the contract the following March, our detail design was well along, and we were tunnel testing at Mach 2 at Ames Laboratory near Sunnyvale, California. One year later, the first XF-104 flew. It reached Mach 2 a year after that. After major redesign for a different engine, the first squadron of F-104s went operational in January 1958, five and one-half years after our first sketches.”
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