F-104 for sale

[David MacRay]

Just figured I should alert everyone.

https://www.controller.com/listings/air ... tarfighter

[Colonel]

Interesting collection of parts.

Actually looks like a "D" model which despite the blurb,
was originally RCAF.  I suspect someone from CEPE
picked it up and flew it back to Cold Lake.  A quick look
at the logs could figure out the 6xx number, I suspect.

I have $20 that says the first two numbers are "63".

[Tailwind W10]

[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=9487.msg26769#msg26769 date=1550244123]
Interesting collection of parts.

Actually looks like a "D" model which despite the blurb,
was originally RCAF.  I suspect someone from CEPE
picked it up and flew it back to Cold Lake.  A quick look
at the logs could figure out the 6xx number, I suspect.

I have $20 that says the first two numbers are "63".
[/quote]

Interesting that the stencil inside the nose say's TF-104G.  It's got Dutch roundels so that would make it accurate.  The F-104 D was a two seat version of the F-104 C with the short chord rudder.  The TF-104 G was a two seat version of the F-104 G, which was the version manufactured in Europe.  The CF-104 were the 200 Canadair manufactured in Canada, with the additional 38 CF-104 D two seat versions.  I'm not certain the Canadian built single seats every officially had the G suffix, but I believe were built to that same standard.  The Dutch 2 seat models were likely supplied by Fokker, as they built the G models in the Netherlands.

The Alberta Aviation Museum got hold of one of the Dutch 2 seaters, it's on display in the main hangar now.  It's got an extra antenna on it's spine the Canadian ones don't have.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_ ... tarfighter

Cheers
Gerry

[Tailwind W10]

Just to follow up, the Alberta Aviation Museum's website says the one they've got is an American built airplane, flown in Dutch service.

https://www.albertaaviationmuseum.com/o ... arfighter/

Getting further into the wiki page, it appears the Canadian CF-104Ds were all built by Lockheed, not by Canadair.  Also Canadair built 140 F-104Gs in addition to the CF-104s, presumably those were sold to European NATO allies.  TF104Gs were built by Lockheed themselves as well as "Multinational".  Perhaps that means the TFs were built by the European manufacturers collectively.  (?)

Gerry

[Colonel]

[quote]the Canadian CF-104Ds were all built by Lockheed[/quote]

Correct.  Canadair built single-seats.  When they wanted a D model,
a couple guys would fly down from Cold Lake in a T-33 to pick one up
which I am told was quite fun, even if they weren't very good pilots
compared to today's Tower C hot sticks.

The F-104 that flew in the [s]netherlands[/s] Norway (edit) recently,
was a D model that was ex-RCAF 637 from Cold Lake:

[img width=500 height=271]http://www.i-f-s.nl/wp-content/uploads/ ... HPrins.jpg[/img]


I am reminded of this scene, so many decades ago ... remember it?



They got the clouds all wrong - as well as the color of the sky - but ignore that. 

[img width=500 height=375]https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/01 ... 748111.jpg[/img]

I am not a good person to watch a TV show or movie, with flying in it.

[Tailwind W10]

CS, any chance you're conf\using Norway with The Netherlands?  That is a picture of 637 in Norwegian markings, which was recently restored by The Norwegian Foreningen Starfighterens Venner (Friends of the Norwegian Starfighter Association).

http://vintageaviationecho.com/starfighter-test-flight/

If not, is there a story about it going to Holland to fly?

[Colonel]

My bad - one story dribbled into the other, in my brain.

Meanwhile, in Florida:

[quote]Starfighters Inc, based in Clearwater, Florida, began as a private venture to restore and fly three former Canadair CF-104 Starfighters at air shows across the United States and Canada.

Initially their CF-104s consisted of a two-seat CF-104D Serial#:104632 (registered as N104RB), and two single-seat CF-104s Serial#s: 104850 (registered as N104RD) and 104759 (registered as N104RN). The aircraft were originally operated with the Royal Canadian Air Force and all later served with the Royal Norwegian Air Force before being imported into the U.S. in the early 1990s.

In summer 2011 the company acquired five additional aircraft. All are F-104S versions built by Fiat for the Italian Air Force in the late 1970s. The estimated cost of restoration of each of the five aircraft is $1 million.[/quote]

So, wrt D models, 637 is flying in Norway and 632 is flying in Florida.

[Tailwind W10]

I worked at Northwest Industries circa 1980 - 1982.  I was the skinny kid in the cleaning bay, so I was the one elected to crawl up the intake ducts to clean them.  The airplanes coming in from Cold Lake were a quick wipe down.  The ones that came over from Baden in Germany (PWA Hercules transport) had so much soot they took hours to scrub down with some pretty smelly chemicals.  There was so much coal dust in the air over there at the time, it made everything black.  Stripping all the paint with Turco ammonia smelling goop was no picnic either.  The whole hanger would usually empty when we broke that stuff out.

I was an 18 year old kid making $5.32 an hour, I was in heaven at the time.  :D

Gerry