The CF-104 Starfighter 104759 was delivered to the Canadian Armed Forces on 17 May 1962 and went to Cold Lake for flight testing. In 1965 it went to Europe to serve the Canadian operational squadron within 1st Wing. When the Canadian phased out a number of aircraft this 104759 was sold to Norway on 23 May 1973 to serve 331Skv at Bodo. Lateron it transferred to sistersquadron 334Skv.
After it was withdrawn from use on 22 November 1982 it was stored at Sola Air Base. A few years later it was seen within the collection of the Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo in June 1989. It was seen there for the last time late May 1995. In August 2000 it was seen again, now inside a new museum building at Gardermoen AB. It could be found preserved until it was sold to Barry Johnson of the Air Defence Museum at Bagotville in Canada. It was first seen in Canada in September 2005 and it was sold in August 2006 to Rick Svetkoff of the Starfighters Demo Team who needed an extra single-seat airframe for the 2007 season. The 104759 arrived in St Petersburg in November 2006.

From (effective date) 10 August 2007 the aircraft received official registrationnumber "N104RN"

Photos show (1) the aircraft stored at Gardermoen on 22 March 2001 taken by Erik Frikke, then taken in October 2007 during its first demonstration by the Starfighters team at Jacksonville, taken by David Tanner. The last photo shows the aircraft early 2008 when it got its team color scheme. The photo was taken by Mike "Bloke" Robinson from the team.

CF-104 (c/n 1150 104850) - Project "N104JT - N104RD"

The CF-104 Starfighter 104850 went to Europe after being delivered to the Canadian Armed Forces. There it was flown until it was phased out due to shortcuts (fleet-reduction program). The aircraft was sold to Norway on 23 May 1973 and it arrived at Bodo Air Base 19 November 1973. The aircraft received serial "850" and joined the fleet of 334Skv.

On 6 December 1982 it was withdrawn from use when the squadron was replacing the Starfighters by F-16 jets. The 104850 was stored inside "bunker 5" at Sola Air Base with 3400 airframe flight hours. It was treated well and eventually sold (or exchanged) by IFS member Steve Alex in Bangor Maine, USA. On 15 July 1994 a Norwegian Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft arrived in Maine, USA to bring over this toy. The aircraft was stored in a big hangar at Bangor Maine and received maintenance and the paint was removed. After the 104 was flyworthy again it was sold to Rick Svetkoff (The Starfighters Demo Team) in July 1997. The aircraft also had received a civil registration "N104JT" (named after Jet Tech which was the name of Steve's company)
In July 1997 the aircraft was brought over to the Starfighters Demo team in St Petersburg and that same month the team made 2 full engine runs. Soon after Tom Delashaw made a succesfull first flight with this completely bare metal aircraft. It was ready for participation in the Eglin Air Base airshow on 2 November 1997. Here it flew together with the CF-104D "N104RB" and still wearing the bare-metal color scheme.

After the first season was very succesfull both aircraft received a stunning blue-white "STARFIGHTERS" colorscheme which still is used today. Its civil registration had been changed to "N104RD" (We believe the D was for Delashaw).

From the moment the team flew 2 aircraft it was decided that Rick would fly the two-seater and Tom Delashaw would fly this 104850. On 22 July 2003 Tom Delashaw lots his life in a tragical take-off accident inside a Hunter aircraft which he had to deliver to a new customer. This was a big shock for the whole Starfighter community as well as for the whole "Starfighters Demo Team".
Tom was replaced by the wellknown German pilot Wolfgang Czaia which at least flew shows with the team until the end of 2004. Nowadays most of the shows are given with only the CF-104D flown by Rick Svetkoff.

Photos show (1) Tom Delashaw while he just arrived in 104850 (N104JT) from the first flight in the US after assembly. Photo (2 and 3) shows Tom while returning from a succesfull demo at the Eglin Air Show on 2 November 1997. Both photos were taken by Frits Widdershoven. Photo (4 and 5) show the aircraft in the air. Both photos were obtained from Tom Delashaw his private collection. Photo 4 was actually taken by Pete Clukey while flying in 104632 from Pope AFB to Clearwater, Florida back in 2001. The 5th photo was taken by Greg L Davis also in 2001, likely taken after leaving Nashville going to the next show. The last photo (6) was taken by Roger Seroo when he visited the team in Clearwater, Florida on 19 October 1998.
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CF-104D (c/n 5302 104632) - flyworthy "N104NL - N166TB - N104RB"

This two seat Canadian Starfighter was once flown by the Canadian Armed Forces since its delivery on 1 May 1962. It served the testsquadron at Cold Lake for many years and when the Canadians wanted to decrease their operational F-104 fleet they sold this aircraft to the Norwegian Air Force on 23 May 1973. On 14 September that year it arrived in Norway receiving serial "4632". It served 334Skv at Bodo until its retirement on 19 November 1982 and put in storage at Sola Air Base and lateron Flesland Air Station.
In November 1988 it was bought by Northern Light Aircraft Corporation and brought over to the USA by C-130 Hercules on the 30th that month. The company spent a lot of hours to service the aircraft, which got civil registration "N104NL" and on 16 May 1989 it made its first flight at Mojave Apt. It was used for a lot of testflights (instruments testing for companies) and payed funflights until it was grounded in June 1993. In December 1993 it was offered for sale.
In 1994 it was sold to Thunderbird Aviation and it was transported to their headquarters at Deer Valley on 11 April 1994. This company gave the aircraft a intensive service treatment removing all the paintwork and checking the complete airframe and avionics. It got a new civil registration, "N166TB", which was more in line with the registration of their other aircraft. Soon after the aircraft flew again and the company received a number of interesting contracts from the US Air Force. From 29th of August 1995 till mid January 1996 it flew several test flights from Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Soon after the company stopped their flight test facilities and the aircraft was sold to Rick Svetkoff who started a Starfighter demonstration team. It was bought in January 1996 and after a number of inspections in Deer Valley it was flown over from Deer Valley to Clearwater, Florida on 6 February.

At Clearwater the aircraft received some necessary overhaul and made some taxy runs in October 1996. The real first flight was in March 1997 with Tom Delashaw on the controls. Then the aircraft went to Lakeland for a repaint on the 10th of March, making it ready for its first demonstration season. The team got a number of sponsors and fuel etc was obtained via the demonstration invitations on several air shows at for example Ft Lauderdale, McDill, Louisville, Andrews, Michigan, Dayton, Oskosh etc...
On 20 May 1997 its civil registration was changed from "N166TB" to "N104RB". this registration was not choosen because of the famous red baron Starfighter but it was named after the owner and his wife (Rick and Barbara). The last show that first succesfull season was at Eglin Air Base on 2 November 1997 and the aircraft was prepared for its new blue-white STARFIGHTERS color scheme which was applied around spring 1998.
From that moment on the Starfighters Demo team also nicknamed "Transworld Starfighters" in 1998, is showing the wonderful shows with this old Canadian bird all over the US enjoying the public in a spectacular way.

Photos show (1) aircraft after it had arrived in the US and being assembled in Spring 1989. Photo (2) shows the aircraft while used by Northern Light Aircraft Inc. Then photo (3) in a different colorscheme of Thunderbird Aviation in 1995. Photo (4) shows the aircraft likely at Eglin in November 1997 already owned by the Starfighters demo team. Photos (5 till 7) show the aircraft wearing the current colorscheme, adopted in 1998. These wonderful photos were taken during the Oceana Air Show on 9 September 2006 by Michael de Boer.

CF-104D (c/n 5303 104633) - flyworthy "N104JR - N104"

This two seat Canadian Starfighter was once flown by the Canadian Armed Forces since its delivery in May 1962. It served the testsquadron at Cold Lake for many years and when the Canadians wanted to decrease their operational F-104 fleet they sold this aircraft to the Norwegian Air Force on 20 July 1973. It received serial "4633" and served 334Skv at Bodo until its retirement on 9 December 1982 and put in storage at Sola Air Base.

In 1983 or 1984 it was sold to a company named Combat Jet Aircraft Museum (CJAM), based at Chino. The new owner of the aircraft was Bruce Goessling. Soon after it was sold to Jim Robinson of the Combat Jet Flying Museum at Houston Texas, taking over the activities to make it flyworthy again. That big day was 11 November 1986 when NASA Starfighter pilot Ed Schneider made its first flight, at Mojave Apt. The aircraft had received already the civil registration "N104JR". On 15 May 1992 it was sold to the EAA, Experimental Aircraft Association, at Oskosh, Winsconsin and soon after it was grounded early 1993. After years of storage the aircraft was offered for sale in December 1995 and bought by Mark Sherman in April 1996. It was flown over that same month from Oskosh to Williams Apt by Tom Delashaw with Ben McAvoy as passenger.
At Williams it was put in storage and it got maintenance. In March 1997 it was planned to make its next flight again and until now the aircraft is still flying around in the USA now and then, still owned by Mark Sherman.

Photos show (1) aircraft after it had arrived in the US full alu dope at Dear Valley in February 1995..Photo (2) shows the lucky owner Mark Sherman with his "N104JR" aircraft. Then photo (3) shows the 104 as "N104" during the Nellis Air Show in May 1997 and last photo (4) shows the aircraft at Mesa Falcon, Florida on 9 March 2003. This beautiful shot was taken by Greg Hofen.

CF-104D (c/n 5307 104637) - project "104637"

This two seat Canadian Starfighter was once flown by the Canadian Armed Forces since its delivery in May 1962. It served the testsquadron at Cold Lake for many years and when the Canadians wanted to decrease their operational F-104 fleet they sold this aircraft to the Norwegian Air Force on 23 May 1973. It arrived in Norway on 14 June 1973 and received serial "4637" and served 334Skv at Bodo until its retirement on 1 April 1983. Then it was put in storage at Sola Air Base. A few month later it went to Bodo where it was used for aircraft towing instructions and put aside early mid 90s. When the aircraft was put on display inside the Bodo Air Museum a group of people got interested in this aircraft and made some plans to get it back into the sky. The aircraft was in a very good shape and it was decided to put the aircraft back under control of 331Skv at Bodo. This was a logistical decision to get more professional attention within the Air Force to support the project.
The group was named "Friends of the Starfighter" and was officially founded in Bodø on 16 january 2003. Very interesting to know that also Rick Svetkoff and Tom Delashaw were in Bodo to celebrate this "start" of the 637 project.
Currently the team is getting a lot of help, including from the Italians for the needed parts and hopefully they will finish the project within 1 or 2 years so we will see and hear again that wonderful sound here in Europe. In September 2007 the team made good progress by a first succesful run of the J79 engine. In the summer of 2008 the first runway taxy-trials were performed.

See taxyrun videos on :

http://www.starfighter.no/web/ny/Starfighter_637_taxitest.wmv
http://www.starfighter.no/web/ny/f104.wmv

Photos show (1) aircraft 637 flying over Scandinavian mountains early 80s. Photo (2) shows the aircraft inside the shelter of the "Friends of the Starfighter" project team. Photo (3) shows the team with the Starfighter. Both last photos have been taken by Roger Seroo (also on the 3rd photo in the middle) at Bodö Air Base during a visit to the team in May 2005.

F-104A (c/n 1038 56-750) - Project "N62556"

This F-104A Starfighter was build in 1957 and this same year it made its first flight. On 25th of November 1957 it was delivered to the USAF. The first user was the ARDC (Aircraft Research Development Centre) at Edwards which used this single seat Starfighter until January 1962 for various flying tests and experiments. In January the aircraft was transferred to the USAF Test Pilot School (TPS) also located at Edwards AFB. This school used the aircraft for 1 and a half year teaching test-pilot students all about this demanding aircraft.
The 6512TG (Test Group) at Edwards received the aircraft in June 1962 where it was redesignated official to JF-104A. The next month the 6512 OMS (Operational Maintenance School) at Edwards obtained this aircraft as instructional airframe. They owned the Starfighter until the AFSC (Aircraft Flight Test Centre) took it over from the school in September 1964. One month later the aircraft was redesignated back to F-104A and stayed in use with this unit until its retirement late 1967. The aircraft was put on store and moved to the MASDC in January 1968. It received storage code "FB015". After the USAF found out that the aircraft was no longer a candidate for export it was dropped from their inventory in October 1971.
To get rid of this "old piece of alluminium" the USAF sold it to DELCON which converts old aircraft into alluminium scrap for recycling. They received the aircraft on 25th of January 1974 but did not scrap it. They put it in storage until they were able to sell the aircraft to a company called Consolidated Aircraft. They brought the aircraft over to Tucson Arizona. Mid 70s it was bought by Darrell Greenamyer and Al Hanson for use in obtaining parts from it in support of their "Red Baron" F-104 project. Late 80s Starfighter enthousiast and IFS member Steve Alex bought the aircraft when it was already located at Mojave. Steve kept the Starfighter on this location and in 1991 he met Scott Vetter who was very interested in the aircraft. At the end Scott bought the 104 from Steve that year and brought the aircraft over to his home location at Canton Michigan. Scott still has 1 major goal........becoming the first owner of a flying F-104A Starfighter in the world!!

More information about the project can be found at the website: http://www.mif-104.com/

Photos show (1) aircraft 56-750 while being used at Edwards as JF-104A at Edwards in October 1967, photo (2) shows the aircraft stored at MASDC and the last photo (3) shows it in the garden of Scott Vetter in October 2001.

One of the initial Lockheed Starfighter test aircraft at Edwards late 50s was F-104A 56-763. It was built and finalized on 18 July 1957, accepted by the US Air Force on 26 August 1957 and eventually delivered on August 29th. It went to Edwards to serve various test projects as a flying testbed for G.E.'s J79 engine, and later as a chase aircraft during other test programs like the X-15, SR-71 Blackbird, & XB-70A Valkyrie. It was scheduled to receive a tail booster rocket and become an NF-104 aircraft, but funding cuts prevented this from occurring.
 
After its career ended it was put in storage at Davis Monthan AB on 4 February 1970 where it was parked next to brother "56-755". Its operational storage period ended officially on 22 October 1971 but the aircraft stayed at the boneyard for 2 more years. Then the aircraft went to DELCON, a company in the Davis Monthan district specialized in scrapping aircraft. It arrived at this company in January 1974 but for an unknown reason it was not scrapped, but sold to someone interested buying a Starfighter. It departed Davis Monthan on 18 March 1974 and disappeared. Nobody knew where it was until its fuselage was seen again at the Aerospace JunkYard, California, formerly Consolidated Aircraft in May 1992. (It's our understanding that it was used by this company for template purposes for NATO aircraft.) IFS member Steve Alex bought this fuselage in September 1996 and stored it a while in California. On 13 October 1997 it arrived at his home in Bangor, Maine, USA.
 
At that time he started to work on the fuselage but soon found an interesting customer. Land speed driver Ed Shadle showed some interest in buying the fuselage to build up a new racecar. He bought it in 1998 and had it shipped to Washington state. Ed established the North America Eagle Land Speed Challenger Project and the Starfighter fuselage was seen with the team for the first time in October 1998.

It took millions of man-hours to convert this fuselage into a serious racecar by adding a new vertical stabilizer and rear suspension for a trailing axle. The engine is a J79-11 for testing, but has a more powerfull J79 engine with special enhancements to increase thrust for the record attempt.

For more information about the history of this Starfighter see the detailed 56-763 history page on our International F-104 Society website here.

For more information about the North America Eagle project visit their wonderful website on : http://www.landspeed.com

Photos show (1) aircraft 56-763 still in service at Edwards Air Force, not long before it was sent to MASDC storage area. The next photo (2) shows the fuselage of the aircraft which was bought by Steve Alex. Here it is seen at Bangor Maine, in October 1997. Then photos (3, 4 and 5) show the aircraft fuselage after it was converted to a high speed racecar, run by the "North American Eagle" team. Their plan is to take the "car" over Mach 1.05!!!

F-104G (c/n 6051 63-13699) - Project "N104??"

In 2006 the Classic Aviation Aircraft Museum at Hillsboro Apt. got into a position to obtain a well preserved ex Taiwanese F-104G Starfighter somewhere parked in a garden of a university in Taichung.
it was a very nice opportunity to get an F-104G flyworthy again within a reasonable time and for a reasonable price. Their owned Belgium aircraft needed too much time and money to get airworthy. Together with their TF-104G this would make a nice couple for flying demonstrations.
The Starfighter is a Canadair licensed build F-104G delivered under MAP regulations to Denmark on 23 November 1964. It got serial R-699 (using last digits of USAF serial 63-12699). When it arrived in Denmark the aircraft had clocked 12.55 flying hours due to test and acceptance flights.
It was flown by 723 Eskader, based at Aalborg until 1 January 1984 when the F-16s started to replace the aircraft of this squadron. The R-699 was transferred to sistersquadron 726 Eskader that day.
On 30 April 1986 the aircraft was withdrawn from use and it was officially given back to the USA due to the MAP regulations. It was decided to transfer them to Taiwan which signed the contract on 18 February 1987. In Taiwan the aircraft received serial "4420" and flew with various squadrons until it retired after November 1995. It went to Taichung where it was used as instructional airframe at the Feng Chia University, first noticed in August 2000. Lateron the aircraft was phased out and put on display in the garden. Soon after the people from the Classic Aviation Aircraft Museum managed to get this aircraft for their museum plans. Until the contract was signed by the Taiwanese authorities the people at the university decided to cocoon the aircraft to protect it against the weather until it was taken by the Americans.
On 18 October 2006 the aircraft was officially handed over to the museum via an official ceremony. Immediately the aircraft was dismantled and shipped to the USA where it arrived at the Seattle harbor on 19 November 2006. From there it went straight on to the main headquarters of the Classic Aviation Aircraft Museum where they started the technical maintenance and other treatments.

CLASSIC AIRCRAFT MUSEUM, INC. LOCATION: Premier Jets Hanger (Hillsboro, OR Airport), 3005 NE Cornell Road PO Box 91430, Portland, OR 97291-0430. (503) 640-2927
Website: http://www.classicaircraft.org/

Photos show (1) shows aircraft 4420 still in operation service, taken at Hsinchu AB. The next photo (2) shows it in the garden of the university on 12 June 2004, the third one was taken when the aircraft had been sold. It was protected by a big blanket in 2006. Then photo (4) shows the aircraft being dismantled on 18 October 2006 and photo (5) was taken in Hillsboro Apt. after it had just arrived in November 2006.

TF-104G (c/n 5926 65-5926) - Project "N104TF"

Early 2001 the company Premier Jets Inc decided to try and buy a two-seater Starfighter to replace the single-seater ex Belgium F-104G. First of all because the F-104G project toke more effort then expected and also because a two seater is much better to fly on a commercial point of view.
In 2001 they managed to get a TF-104G from the Turkish Air Force which arrived in the US in November 2001. With this aircraft they also got a tail from another F-104 as spare.
We are speaking about TF-104G 5926 which was first used by the German Luftwaffe (WS10 training squadron at Jever followed by JaBoG 33 at Buchel and finishing with JaBoG 34 at Memmingen) as 27+96 and sold to the Turkish Air Force with 3025 clocked flying hours on 21 January 1986. In Turkey it flew first with 9th Wing at Balikesir (9-926) and later with 8th Wing at Diyarbakir (8-926). It was used until 1994 and put in storage at Diyarbakir. It was seen in storage for the last time in September 2000 and in November 2001, as mentioned above, it was brought over to Premier Jets Inc. at Hillsboro Apt, USA.
Immediately the aircraft got a civil registration "N104TF" and was stripped and received major maintenance. It was strange to see number "5906" on the tailfin (see bottom photo), meaning that this tail once belonged to aircraft 27+77 which had been sold to Greece....
The company Premier Jets Inc is currently named "Classic Aircraft Aviation Museum (CAAM)".

CLASSIC AIRCRAFT MUSEUM, INC. LOCATION: Premier Jets Hanger (Hillsboro, OR Airport), 3005 NE Cornell Road PO Box 91430, Portland, OR 97291-0430. (503) 640-2927.
Website: http://www.classicaircraft.org/

Photos show (1) shows aircraft in Turkey with 8 Wing at Diyarbakir AB in April 1994. Next photo (2) shows the aircraft at Hillsboro Apt while the last photo (3) shows the aircraft inside the CAAM hangar on 11 September 2005.

TF-104G (c/n 5702) "N90500 - N104L" Lockheed TF-104G demonstrator

Early 60s Lockheed decided to take one of the aircraft out of their TF-104G production line to use it as a customer demonstration aircraft. The jet-fighter market was growing and Lockheed sold already a number of aircraft to NATO and wanted to gain interest of other nations as well. They also managed to get a lot of media attention, especially during the test-rides by Jacky Cochran in April till June 1963 and by Tony and his 18-year old daughter Toni Le Vier end May 1963.
The aircraft was nicknamed "Free World Defender" and carried a special logo.
As already mentioned the aircraft was used by Jacqueline Cochran. She managed to set three women's world speed records in May-June 1964. On 11th May 1963, she averaged 1429.3 mph over a 15/25 km course and on the 1st June she flew at an average speed of 1303.18 mph over a 100-km closed-circuit course. Finally at 3 June she flew at an average speed of 1127.4 mph over a 500-km again closed-circuit course.

In 1965 the aircraft was given back to the productionline and thanks to the Dutch Prince Bernard the aircraft went to the Dutch Air Force. So it joined the Dutch TF fleet as last one on 30 May 1965 receiving serial D-5702. This ended the civil career of this two-seater.

To complete the history of this aircraft, it was flown by the Dutch Air Force after being withdrawn from use in August 1980. On 25 August 1980 it was delivered to the Turkish Air Force, arriving in Turkey the next day. The 5702 was operated first by 4th Wing at Murted AB and later by 9th Wing at Balikesir AB. Then it was phased out in 1989 and went into storage at Eskisehir. It was likely scrapped late 1993 or early 1994.

Photos show (1) shows aircraft with its initial serial "N90500", just after it had received the demo livery. The second photo (2) shows it at Andrews AFB in September 1963, the next photo (3) shows the "N104L" with Jacky Cochran at the controls while taking off for one of her recordflights. Then a photo (4) showing the aircraft at the ramp which gives a good view on the blue lines applied on its fuselage. The last photo (5) shows the aircraft serving the Royal Netherlands Air Force, taken on its homebase Leeuwarden AFB, on 7 June 1979.

N-104RB (c/n 2051-hybrid) "N104RB" Red Baron speed record aircraft

In 1966 Lockheed decided to get rid of their production reference Starfighter fuselage with c/n 2051. It was no longer needed and a bit later it fell into the hands of a very ambitious man with the name Darryl Greenamyer. He had flown Starfighters in the past and was convinced that this aircraft was capable to break any existing flight speed record. A project to build a speedrecord aircraft was born.

A nose-cone came from an old F-104A. The cockpit forward section (Electronic bay) was obtained from a Lockheed used F-104A static model (M61 Vulcan-gun firing rig/platform), later discarded. The main fuselage was the former production reference framework F-104G (c/n 2051) situated at Lockheed which was used for testing equipment fit etc. In 1966 he spyed this production prototype (mockup) lying around at Lockheed. The mockup was put together with round-head rivets, so he had to drill them all out and replace them with the flush rivets! The cockpit side-panels and soms control-column bearings came from the very first produdion F-104A, which crashed in Palmdale in 1956. Some nose-wheel parts came from a scrappile at Homestead, Florida. The idler-arm for the elevator controls, the ejection seat rails and some electrical relays came from an F-104 that crashed and burned at Edwards AFB on the edge of the Mojave Desert. The aft-section was obtained from a crashed Luke CCTW TF-104G (identity unknown), found on a scrapyard in Ontario. The Horizontal tail came from Davis Monthan AFB, Tucson scrapyard. The wings also belonged to a former Luke CCTW aircraft. This one-seat F-104G had also been written off after a crash (accident). The powerplant, on ban from the US-NAVY, was a US NAVY Phantom J79-GE10 engine which was tuned on a tested rate of 19,000 pound of thrust uninstalled. (GE-11A/GE-19 normally rated at 14,400/16,200 pounds) Greenamyer got his throttle quadrant from a Tennesse flying buff he met at the Reno National Air Races. (the Tennessean had been using it as an office decoration) The trunnion-mounts for the nose-gear, some of the cooling-system valves and a few relays on the Red Baron were no doubt the most unusual parts of any interceptor plane with front-line capability. To get those items at Eglin AFB, Greenamyer had to pay $7,500 for a 25-ton pils of junk that included ammo-cans, missile cases, several segments of a helicopter, a Continental piston engine and a refrigerator! What he got out of all this was a badly dented F-104 fuselage section that he hoped to patch up and smooth out. Greenamyer has gone as far as Puerto Rico in search of parts, and he trailered portions of the tail from Florida

round 1970, while he was still casting about for a forward and central fuselage section on which to hang wings and other such necessities, Greenamyer got a hot tip from a Lockheed technical representative. A F-104 of the PR ANG had run off a strip in Savannah. After being shipped back to PuertoRico, the plane was deemed too far gone for repair. Assured that he could have the fuselage, Greenamyer packed suitable work clothes and flew from his home in Sun Valley to San Juan. When he arrivad, the guard commander was partying with friends, which lasted 3 days. To ease Greenamyer's impatience to get at the rumpled F-104, the colonel promised to have the fuselage stripped, crated and shipped to California. Two days after returning home, Greenamyer heard from the colonel. "Gee, Darryl, I gave you that fuselage", the colonel said, "but I forgot to toll the fire-marshal, and he just burned it for fire-practice". As consolation the colonel added "Don't worry, Darryl, We'll probably crack up another one, and I'll save it for you". Some of the boys at Lockheed were given Greenamyer rather sophisticated help in their spare time, and there is just a hint that the reason for their interest is a lust after vindication. There were other good solid reasons for using the F-104, one of which is the engine. It has exceptionally high compression, which enabled the airplane to set an altitude record of 103,389 feet in 1959. Another reason for Greenamyer's choice is that the airframe exists in a zero-hour, zero-defect condition, no fatigue at all anywhere. It is the kind of opportunity you don't find every day.
A stock F-104 weighted 15,000 pounds empty; Greenamyer's weighted only 11,500. Armament was out and also the speed brakes, drag chute, boundary-layer-control system and the leading-edge device actuators. It received the G-model's antiskid system and brakes. Including some compensation weight inside the nose the total weight became 11,800 pound. After the record flight he planned to struck the metal of the ballast into coins by a mint to become available for collectors. However we are not sure he did.
When considering these informations we now have a good idea about the real identity of the N104RB. We heard indeed the Lockheed plant used a fuselage part as a mockup to test equipment to fit. This mockup was the missing construction number 2051 which was build as central fuselage only. Those days the fuselage should have had fake-serial "FG-733" on the aft-side. The used test-rig/platform for testing the M61 could be F-104A 56-737(?) of which is known it went to Lockheed after its operational career and has never been seen since.

In February 1976 it was seen at Van Nuys AB and it was made flyworthy, still missing the engine, in spring 1976. The famous red-white paint shop was given to the aircraft in May and in June it had been transported to Mojave Apt. After the engine was fitted the first test flights were made.About the N104RB usage. It is known Darryl was a Lockheed test-pilot during the seventies and flew more then 100 Starfighters giving him a lot of experience for flying the record-attempt.

Then on 2 October 1977 Darryl Greenamyer broke the record by flying average 1010 mph. Sadly this record became un-official due to a tracking camera malfunction.. This was very frustrating.
Then on the 24th that month Darryl did a new attempt and flew an FAI 3 km official record flight of 988.26 mph average. Sadly he did not break the 1000 mph this time but it was fast enough!!!

After this record Darryl Greenamyer was looking out for a new challenge. He wanted to break the world altitude record. He had made some speculations about his aircraft could reach 140,000 feet and flying towards Mach 2.6 to maybe 2.8! For this reason the aircraft had to undergo some modifications. To attempt the altitude record, in his words, "I would travel at 38,000 feet at Mach 2.6 (1,550 mph). Then I would rotate upward pulling 3 Gs until I got a 12-degree angle of attack on the wing. I would hold a 12-degree AOA untiI I got a 60-degree climb angle, and I would hold 60-degree until I get back to 12-degree AOA. Then I would hold the 12-degree angle and it would lead me over the top. Increased thrust would come from a fuel additive of Greenamyer's own conception, and a water injection system at the engine inlets that, in affect, fools the machinery into thinking it is flying in cooler, more efficient air. Twenty two miles up there, losing power with very, very little thin air flowing over his control surfaces, a little too much of this or that at a wrong instant and the plane might flop over. This was the plan in February 1978. For the altitude record Darryl figured the flight would last about 15 minutes. He had deactivated some of the fuel tanks, but kept the stock extended range tanks to hold the water for the water injection-system. The J79 would use 60 gpm of water, which, at Mach 2 at 40,000 feet adds a 50 % boost in thrust by cooling the inlets to 100 degrees (Celsius), and raising the air density to the engine.

On February 26th 1978 he made the fourth practice run/flight. He had made already 3 of 4 test flights in preparation for the altitude record attempt. On this 4th test-run, towards dusk, he went up from the Mojave Airport to test the power-boosting water-injection system. It worked flawlessly, being exhilarated, Greenamyer made one low, slow pass for photographs, then with 20 minutes of fuel left on the downwind leg of his approach, he lowered the landing-gear. All "greens" went on except for the left wheel. Greenamyer changed bulbs, and he raised and lowered the gear half a dozen times, but could not get a safe indication that the left wheel was locked down. While he made another 200 mph pass at 50 fest, a former crewman, Bob Flaherty, stood in the middle of the strip trying to see if the dime-size locking pin of the left wheel was in place. In the falling light he could not see the pin of either wheel. Greenamyer flew 30 miles to Edwards AFB. Because there was no time left for a chase plane to scramble up and try to spot the pin from directly from below, Greenamyer bounced the Red Baron along the Edwards strip at 200 mph to try to ascertain if the left wheel was locked. The wheel felt spongy to him; the control tower reported that it was collapsing slightly on impact. Because the heat generated by friction, if an F-104 is belly-landed, conflagration is almost a certainty. Because the wing tips are a scant 6 inches above the belly, total destruction was also very likely. With 10 min of fuel left, Greenamyer headed for the Edwards "ejection-area", 20 miles farther out in the desert. As he climbed to 10,000 feet, he remembered with irony that he had tested every component of more than 100 F-104's, but never an ejection-seat, and now he would be using one he had made himself out of scraps. With 5 minutes of fuel left, he throttled back to 200 mph, shut down the engine and pulled the ejection-ring. As he drifted down he saw his Red Baron sinking rapidly below him in straight and level flight as if it would be still manned. Five miles in front of him, the Red Baron did a 180-degrae turn, passed low to his left and out of sight behind him. A minute later the agree ? crashed into the Mojave Desert, this time beyond re-collection and repair.

Nice to know is the piece of text inside a magazine explaining something about the speed during the successful record flight. It says, "A colleague professor learned in the workings of the human sensory system informed him that because of the lag between eye and brain, anything he saw while traveling 900 mph, 100 feet of the ground would already be 150 feet behind him!"
As Darryl recalls, "What the professor said, the affect would be, that if I headed into the ground, I would never know I had!"

Nevertheless this was the end of one of the most famous Starfighters ever put together. It still holds the FAI 3 km speed record today!!!!

Thanks to Steve Alex, Thom Delashaw and Darryl Greenamyer.

See also: http://www.angelfire.com/indie/aerostuff/F-104SpeedRecord.htm

Photos show (1) shows Darryl Greenamyer, the holder of the speedrecord still today. The next photos (2 and 3) shows the Red Baron on the ramp of Mojave in June 1976 and photos (4 and 5) shows first Darryl and then the team in front of the Red Baron in 1977. The next photos (6 and 7) where taken around the first testflights followed by two photos (8 and 9) taken during the record flight. Then the last one shows the remains of the Red Baron when it was found in Mojave airport dump on 24 March 1987, almost 10 years after it crashed.