Man i still remember putting that plane back together with Drew and Andrew 25 years ago. This was before Shawn came on board. Plane came out of Canada with wings and tail off, and we reassembled the plane in a hangar KPIE. Great to still see its still going. Rick flew the 2 seater, and Major Tom flew that one. RIP Major Tom
Thank you so much for making these videos! Very rare insights. Amazing aircraft. Most beautyful jet of all time in my opinion. Can't wait to see it fly in italy this year.
Love seeing these behind-the-scenes shots. I'm lucky enough to work for a car company (Piercarlo, you might be able to guess which company) that often tests at the runway you're based at, and I always love getting to experience a mini-airshow when you go up.
*Thank´s Piercarlo! Very interested video again. I love the 104 - many of them very deployed in Europe/ Germany as I was a little boy. Saw them often flying or on airshows. Keep your "S" - Version alive as long as possbible !!!*
That cool Pier and good crew with you AJ and Shawn. Maybe soon some ZIPPING around and set some speed and altitude records. Thank you very much for the videos you post. Great way to sell the services of "Starfighter Aerospace".
Watched this at an airshow at lockheed plant 42, palmdale. 62-63 104 mounted on a teststand inside the hangar 24hrs a day all this thing did was cycle the doors and gear, up- down- up- down 24hrs a day for weeks at a time..
Dad knew this gear well enough to trust it to land a CF-104 without wheels at Cold Lake, rather than eject as most pilots would have done. Saved the aircraft, just put new wheels on!
I assume they have the Lockheed service manuals for reference. I wonder if they make their own replacement parts or go to Germany & Italy and scavenge. Remember this 104 was designed 70 years ago but was updated throughout its service.
I had no idea there were F-104 with LCD screens and all. And they look airworthy, I thought the had been retired. Why are there airworthy F-104 ? Edit: it's ok I did some searching. It's from the kennedy space center offering training flights on those birds.
Piercarlo, I hit play faster than an F-104, almost broke my thumb. Keep them coming. Also, I don’t think you covered it in your cockpit tour vid, but what are those vertical bullet looking things by the canopy opening?
Looking at pictures of the F-104 cockpit on the computer, they seem to be canopy jettison devices. When the canopy is closed there are plates that cover the tips and when the canopy is commanded to eject, they push on those plates lifting the front edge of the canopy into the airstream where it would be carried away.
Would you tell us about the window unit hooked to the leaf blower? Lol I bet some USAF AGE aerospace ground equipment guy spit his beer when he saw that. Lol
