Starfighters Inc is a civilian organization that uses

F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic interceptor. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the " Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), it was developed into an all ...

s for contract testing and flight simulations.

History

Starfighters Inc, based in

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa, Florida, Tampa and north of St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies T ...

, began as a private venture founded in 1995 to restore and fly three former

Canadair Canadair Ltd. was a Canadian civil and military aircraft manufacturer that operated from 1944 to 1986. In 1986, its assets were acquired by Bombardier Aerospace, the aviation division of Canadian transport conglomerate Bombardier Inc. Canadai ...

CF-104 Starfighter The Canadair CF-104 Starfighter (CF-111, CL-90) is a modified version of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter aircraft built in Canada by Canadair under licence. It was primarily used as a ground attack aircraft, despite being des ...

s at air shows across the United States and Canada. Initially their CF-104s consisted of a two-seat CF-104D Serial#:104632 (registered as ), and two single-seat CF-104s Serial#s: 104850 (registered as ) and 104759 (registered as ). The aircraft were originally operated with the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...

and all later served with the

Royal Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) () is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximately 2,430 employees (officers, enlisted ...

before being imported into the U.S. in the early 1990s. In recent years the company has cut back on air show appearances as they have transitioned to using their aircraft for government and private contract work, providing high-performance photo chase planes on flight tests, simulating enemy aircraft in military defense exercises, and modelling

ballistic missiles A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typica ...

for detection system evaluation. In summer 2011 the company acquired five additional aircraft. The estimated cost of restoration of each of the five aircraft is $1 million. CEO & President of Starfighters is Rick Svetkoff.

Fleet

* CF-104D, ex-Canadian Armed Forces serial number ''104632'', registered as N104RB * CF-104G, ex-Canadian Armed Forces serial number ''104759'', registered as N104RN * CF-104G, ex-Canadian Armed Forces serial number ''104850'', registered as N104RD * F-104B, ex-USAF serial number ''56-1296'', registered as N65354 * F-104S, ex-Italian Air Forces serial number ''MM6734'', registered as N993SF * TF-104G-M serial number ''54251'', registered as N990SF * TF-104G-M serial number ''54258'', registered as N991SF * TF-104G-M serial number ''54261'', registered as N992SF"FAA Registry: N992SF."
''faa.gov'' Retrieved: 27 July 2021.

References

External links

Starfighters, Inc Official

Hi-res virtual tours of the Starfighter Aerospace fleet
American aerobatic teams 1995 establishments in Florida {{aviation-org-stub