Canadair CF-104 Starfighter – 334 Sqn Norwegian Air Force, Norway, 1982

Hobby Master 1/72 scale HA1066: Canadair CF-104 Starfighter #104801 of 334 Sqn Norwegian Air Force , Norway, 1982. Production run of 400 models.

Length 9.25 inches Wingspan 3.75 inches

Constructed for the RCAF in 1962 as c/n 683A-1101 and given the serial number 12801. The aircraft was assigned to the No. 3 Wing at CFB Zweibrucken, Germany. In 1970 the aircraft was retired and stored until 1973 when it was sold to Norway. In 1980 the aircraft was renumbered as 104801 “801” and in 1982 was retired and was flown to Oslo to begin its preservation at the Central Defence Museum, on display RNoAF Museum (Forsvarsmuseet) at Gardermoen with 334 Skv marks. In 2006 moved to “Norwegian Aviation Museum” (Norsk Luftfartsmuseum) at Bodo.

Designed to meet a need for an aircraft that could successfully compete against the MiG-15 in Korea, the F-104 Starfighter was first flown on February 20, 1958. American pilots believed that the F-86 Sabre was too large and complex to outmaneuver the lighter MiG, and they wanted a smaller, simpler, high-performance aircraft to replace it. The resulting design was a light, aerodynamic airframe wrapped around a powerful J79 turbojet engine. The F-104C was used by the USAF from 1958 until 1967, but most of the 2,578 production Starfighters were built and flown by members of NATO, including the Italian Air Force, which didn’t retire it until 2004.