104633 will get alive again this summer

The KF Centre for Excellence in Kelowna British Colombia is close to conducting engine runs and taxi trials of their owned Lockheed CF-104D Starfighter 104633 "12633". This aircraft once belonged to the Canadian Armed Forces has a rich history. First used to train the first pilots at Palmdale, USA in September 1961 it flew over to Cold Lake to continue the training of Canadian pilots there by the 6th STR. In Around 1965 it was prepared at Prestwick, UK, to continue a career in Europe. It was handed over to 1st Wing at Marville and later when the Marville operations ceized it went back to Cold Lake in May 1967 where it flew with 417 squadron until it was sold to the Norwegian Air Force in juLy 1973. The aircraft had flown by that time a total of 1110 hours when it started a new adventure in Norway. The Norwegian Air Force flew the aircraft with 334 squadron at Bodo until its retirement on December 9th, 1982 with a total amount of almost 2487 flying hours. Years later, after been in storage at Sola, the Combat Jet Air Museum at Chino, USA, bought the aircraft (by Bruce Goessling) on October 17th, 1986. Soon after, when in the USA, it was sold to Jim Robinson, located at Mojave Apt. There the aircraft flew again on November 11th 1986 with NASA pilot Ed Schneider. It flew again occasionally on various events the next years (with Ed Schneider)  and finally went for sale, when it was in storage at Oskosh, in December 1995. In April 1996 it was sold to Mark Sherman. That same month the aircraft was flown over to its new home at Williams Apt by Tom Delashaw together with Ben McAvoy. The aircraft got maintenance and finally was seen many times on Air days such as the Open House at Nellis, Luke, Scottsdale, Mesa, Prescott and Phoenix. It had flown another 200 hours during its Civil years so far when in 2015 the aircraft went for sale by Mark's company "Fuel Fresh Inc." In 2022 the KF Centre of Excellence was able to obtain the aircraft for their museum. It arrived at Kelowna, from Ephrata, Washington, on June 2nd, 2023.  The original registration "N104" was officially changed to "N104KF".
A team, led by experienced engineer Luke Staber, did a great job by converting the aircraft back to its Canadian colors and markings, ready for the next step to get it serviceable again. They expect to start the engine again this summer 2026 and to start with taxi trials during the end of this year.

What a thrill!!!!

Picture thanks to D'Arcy Barker