Starfighters Space

American flight instruction company The "Starfighters" display in 2008 Starfighters Space is a civilian organization that uses F-104 Starfighters for contract testing and flight simulations. History Starfighters Space, based in Clearwater, Florida, began as a private venture founded in 1995 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 the 2010s, the company cut back on air show appearances and taken more government and private contract work—for example, providing high-performance photo chase planes for flight tests, simulating enemy aircraft in military exercises, and modelling ballistic missiles for detection system evaluation. In summer 2011 the company acquired five more aircraft. The estimated cost of restoration of each of the five