d/d 02apr57, Lockheed (apr57) w/o 02apr57

Detailed history :
This 56-731 had a very short life since it was lost on its delivery flight to the US Air Force. On November 6th, 1956 it rolled out of the factory, ready for testflying. On January 30th, 1957 it was accepted by the USAF.
Sadly no photos are known of this Starfighter. There have been seen photos of an F-104A 56-731 "FG-731" taken at Mojave Apt but this was NOT the real 56-731!!

Accident Reports:

2 April 1957 (F-104A)
Written off after an accident near Edwards AFB on its delivery flight from Lockheed to the US Air Force. It flew at 17000 feet when it experienced a fatal engine flame out. The Civilian Lockheed testpilot Ervine C. Pratt ejected and was safe. The official USAF archive reports show in deed a delivery date 2 April 1957 which means it has been crashed near Edwards AFB on delivery from Palmdale on this tuesday morning and was meant for AFFTC, AFSC or ARDC at Edwards AFB.
The aircraft impacted near the edge of Rogers Dry Lake, about 2.2 miles SSE of the Edwards AFB control tower. Some witnesses stated that there was a fairly deep impact crater and a lot of debris. The largest piece was the horizontal part of the T-tail assembly. It was lying just east of the south end of the old South Base cross-wind runway, not far from some of the stored aircraft that belong to the AFFTC Museum. The pilot Ervine Pratt (36 years old) was picked up by a truck and taken to the Base hospital for treatment of a bruised elbow.
(USAF has dropped the aircraft from its inventory on July 30th, 1957)