The F-104 Starfighter was a revolutionary design with short razor-sharp wings. It was the first aircraft to be able to maintain Mach 2 not just in short bursts. The Starfighter shattered speed and rate of climb records that still are impressive today. This extremely high speed earned the plane the nickname “The Missile With A Man In It”. Because of financial considerations 15 or more countries purchased the F-104. The Starfighter flew with the USAF in 1958 and the last airplane was decommissioned in Italy in 2004.
Built by Fokker, F-104G c/n 683D-8044 made its first flight on April 16, 1963 as KG+144. On July 8, 1963 joined JG 71 at Wittmund AB as JA+240 wearing a silver paint finish. On August 15, 1967 during a landing in marginal weather JA+240 went off the runway breaking all landing gear and flipped over and the pilot was unhurt. The aircraft only had 438 flight hours but the damage was too costly to repair so it became an instructional air frame.