13
Jul
On May 26th this year (2023) a big trailer was heading to Rheine in Northern Germany. It carried an old Luftwaffe F-104G Starfighter which had been collected at Buchel Air Base.
It was the old instructional airframe 25+86 (werknr 9061) with wfu code "C011". This particular aircraft has quite a "boring" history because after delivery to the German Air Force in 1964 (manufactured with SABCA, Belgium as KH+134) it was selected to become an instructional airframe at the Technische Schule der Luftwaffe 1 at Kaufbeuren. With only 8 hours flows in total the decision was made to never fly it again...
So, at Kaufbeuren is was an important learning subject for many years and at the moment the Lufwaffe was withdrawing the F-104 from its inventory this instructional airframe was replaced at Kaufbeuren in 1987. On July 16th, 1987 it was transferred to Buchel Air Base where they could use the aircraft for their instructional duties until around 2015 when it was parked outside waiting for its future. In 2023 the decision was made to move the aircraft to the Traditionsgemeinschaft Westfalengeschwader (TG WG) at Rheine Bentlage which was interested to take the aircraft over for display purposes. On May 26th it arrived and was moved into the main hangar at Rheine-Bentlage.
 |
| @ |
 |
| @ |
Note : we have still no idea what will happen with the current Rheine Bentlage Starfighter DF+101 which can be found inside the same shelter now.
Pictures thanks to Ulrich Rapreger.
No Comments