The Objectives of the International F-104 Society

The international F-104 Society was founded in 1989. The reason was that a number of people, interested in the F-104 Starfighter, were looking for a platform to share data with each other.
At that moment the internet was just born and PCs were rare. The way to communicate which each other was a self-made quarterly released magazine, named "ZIPPER". This started with 10 but later on grew to over the 100, world wide. This was something we never expected. In between Ton van der Zeeuw and Harry Prins both were very busy gathering data worldwide and check, analyse the data and compare which each other and with others in the world. We realized that the role of the F-104 in the world was coming to an end and the aircraft was being replaced everywhere. More and more we were noticed that Starfighters were put on display and many others simply were scrapped.

The F-104 Starfighter has played an important role in protecting freedom in the West, the Middle East and also in Asia. Together with all the pilots who flew the Starfighters, the aircraft left a great impression. The design, the sound, the speed and certainly the pleasure of flying (all ex-F-104 pilots can confirm this) ensure that the aircraft deserves some kind of platform and never should be forgotten.

When we started the International F-104 Society website late nineteens we decided to determine specific objections for the organization being:

(1) Collecting the history (data and pictures/videos) of every F-104 Starfighter built from construction to the present.
(2) Making the history of the F-104 Starfighters available to all F-104 interested parties in the world (via free membership/password)
(3) Collecting the history of all F-104 operating countries (Air Forces, Units, Airbases) and the operational use (exercises, exchanges, combat).
(4) Collecting the history of every F-104 Starfighter pilot who flew (and some still fly it today in civil aircraft) the F-104 Starfighter.
(5) Sharing a list of F-104 Starfighter pilots frequently with there F-104 experience available (as far as the privacy policy allows) via the membership platform.
(6) Sharing F-104 related videos on a special YouTube channel.
(7) Sharing information on all known released F-104 books and Magazines with F-104 related articles.
(8) Ensuring that the whole history of all F-104 Starfighters is preserved for the future.

To find out the complete history of each built Starfighter is not easy. There are lots of sources to gather information both a lot of data is incorrect or not matching other information. Nevertheless we have compiled a huge amount of data in a big SQL database available for members to check (via password) on our website.
To get data more and more complete we also rely on official data from the Industry and Air Forces but also thanks to pilots who flew the F-104 Starfighters. For example shared information from Pilot logbooks valuable to find out which aircraft was flown by which squadrons and when certain exercises or squadron exchanges were held and which aircraft participated. Also information around and during squadron exchanges, deployments, exercises and incidents are crucial to complete F-104 history even more.
Gathering all these data brings also some interesting possibilities to serve others. For example we were able to bring back F-104 pilots together (friends lost contact) and to hand over information to families of F-104 Starfighter pilots. We have shared already many accident reports to families who never heard what had happened when their relative was sadly killed in an F-104 accident. And then of course we can share many pictures of F-104 Starfighters and also group pictures between ex Starfighter pilots.
Finally there is a possibility for everyone to have Starfighter pilots added to the F-104 pilot gallery on our website. For example many families have added relatives to the gallery to honor them that way.

We are never ready, the history will continue and we will keep filling gaps in this big and very interesting subject!!!
Every help is much appreciated.

International F-104 Society.