This weekend Fabio Tognolo (Aviaspotter.it) visited the Volandia Museo Del Volo (Via per Tornavento, 15, 21019 Somma lombardo VA, Italy) and found ex Italian Air Force F-104S/ASA MM6737 preserved inside with serial 9-51. It had arrived there recently and officially added to the collection on Friday March 10th. 2023.
This is in fact F-104S/ASA MM6737 which had been withdrawn from use as 9-43 at Grazzanise on June 7th, 2003 with 5427 flying hours. Soon after it got demilitarized (CFE) at Grazzanise with official CFE date September 30th, 2004. When the aircraft was seen lateron at the Grazzanise storage area it showed the wrong CFE plate from another aircraft being MM6879. This was not a surprise because more aircraft had been seen with mixed up CFE-plates mounted.
Nevertheless the aircraft was picked up by the restoration team to become a preserved aircraft at Vairano Scalo (ISISS-Marconi) where it was mounted on a frame under a tree in 2006 with serial "9-51". Around 2020 the aircraft was picked up by the Italian Air Force and brought back to Grazzanise because of the very bad shape of the aircraft. The tree had its impact on the overall paint.
At Grazzanise it have been in storage and early this year it was completely cleaned and transferred to the museum in Volandia.
Note: The F-104S/ASA is now found on the same location inside the museum where the Luftwaffe 20+37 could be found. It is very likely that this German Starfighter was given back to the German Air Force Museum from which it was on loan.
Beneath some pictures from the past taken at Vairano Scalo in 2018 and a picture taken in September 2020 at Grazzanise (note the black dirt caused by the tree).
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