d/d 30apr57, Lockheed (apr57-dec60), 3205th DS (dec60-oct67) w/o 26oct67

Detailed history :
This 56-730 was the very first production F-104A build by Lockheed and for this reason it stayed with Lockheed for test purposes after delivery to the US Air Force. The aircraft rolled from the production line on the 2nd of November 1956 and was accepted by the US Air Force after a number of intensive testflights on the 30th of April 1957. It stayed with Lockheed when officially delivered on that same day and got special test-equipment and sensors applied for testing (receiving designation JF-104A) which was ready in July 1957. On the 12th of August that year it was damaged after a testflight ended in a belly-landing at Palmdale. It was soon repaired and continued its test-activities until May 1960. With Lockheed this Starfighter was modified into XQF-104A being one of the QF-104A drone prototypes to test the remote control system and specific sensors and other modifications. These tests ran from June till December 1960 when the tested QF was sent to Eglin AFB to be tested by the 3205th DS (ARDC). In November 1961 it was modified back to QF-104A standard and was assigned as one of the drone Starfighters at Eglin Air Force Base from October 1962. During the drone carreer at Eglin it encountered a number of accidents until it finally was lost during an unmanned mission in an accident on the 26th of October 1967.

Accident Reports:

12 August 1957 (JF-104A)
After completion of a test flight for APC (Auto Pitch Control) evaluation the pilot performed a straight in approach with the gear confirmed “down and locked” and visually confirmed by a tower observer. However on touchdown the landing gear was in the up position so the aircraft slid on the belly for 5,300 feet over the runway. The landing gear handle was confirmed in the up position and the aircraft was repaired soon after.. Lockheed engineering testpilot Arthur Joseph Peterson was unhurt.
By that time the aircraft had reached 48 hours total flying time of which 16 hours were flown the last 90 days...

6 June 1963 (QF-104A)
It toke off for a mission but during this take off the Starfighter lost its canopy. The aircraft which flew unmanned could be recovered and landed safely and suffered no further damage.

10 June 1963 (QF-104A)
This day the 56-730 made a barrier engagement on landing after an unmanned mission. Chuck Dildine, one of the F-104 pilots working with the 3205th DS, made on this point a personal opinion. He believed that the controllers were either careless or under-trained. There were just too many barrier engagements during that period. Most of these were at 130 to 150kts. In later years it went down to 68 to 71kts.
(Chuck had controlled 46 unmanned landings and took the barrier only once at 80kts..)

17 May 1967 (QF-104A)
This day QF-104A 56-730 toke off for an unmanned mission. During the take-off the doors failed to close. The controller on the re-cycled the gear and tried to close the doors again, which succeeded. The aircraft went on and flew a good mission.
Note: this showed clearly that the 3205th Drone Squadron had "almost" complete control of an unmanned QF-104A if all remote functions were operating properly.

26 October 1967 (QF-104A)
A sad day for QF-104A 56-730. It flew an unmanned mission at 1.4 Mach at 30m feet when the controller lost pitch control of the QF. The drone zoomed to 40m feet, then down, then back up to 55m feet. Last airspeed recorded by telemetry was 800kts while the QF was going down again vertically. At the end the drone was destroyed by an installed and correctly operating destruct package.