@ Grass Valley, CA
July 2019
This Starfighter guards the main entrance of the Nevada County Airport in Grass Valley. Three aircraft were modified from existing Lockheed F-104A airframes, and served with the Aerospace Research Pilots School between 1963 and 1971, the modifications included a small supplementary rocket engine and a reaction control system for flight in the stratosphere. During the test program, the maximum altitude reached was more than 120,000 feet (36,600 m). One of the aircraft was destroyed in an accident while being flown by Chuck Yeager (a Grass Valley resident), this surviving example wears the markings of Yeager’s NF-104A. This aircraft endured two rocket system explosions on two separate flights, retired in 1971 after the second incident. Nikon D7100 w/18-200mm.
