Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

The Beginning - How we purchased the North American Eagle™

When we were running the prototype NAE, Keith and I had discussed the feasibility of using an aircraft rather than building a second car from scratch. We finally settled on the F-104 as the most desirable design. Having been to Edwards AFB and discussed the advantages of entering into a cooperative research and development agreement with Kurt Buehler, the manager of technology exchange, he had assured me that the Air Force would be able to supply us with a surplus model. Kurt gave to me the contact names and phone numbers at Davis Montham AFB, the keepers of the inventory of surplus aircraft. It turned out there were no F-104’s left in the inventory so they could not supply us with one even if we did get the CRDA signed.

During the time we were at Edwards AFB and in the process of creating a CRDA with Kurt Buehler, we stopped by Al Hansons hanger at the Mojave Airport. He had two very nice F-104’s in his hanger. We discussed purchasing the F-104G from him. I made him an offer of $55,000.00 without the engine. He agreed to give our team a few weeks to get the money together but within about two weeks he had sold it to Roger Kelsey of Premier Jets in Hillsboro, Oregon. We missed the boat by about a week.

The one single most identifying character of this team is tenacity! We were not about to give up so we kept beating the bushes. Al Hansen told me of his friend Steve Alex, located in Maine who deals in surplus aircraft and specializes in F-104’s. Al gave me Steve Alex’s phone number and I contacted him to see what he had for sale. As it turned out, Steve had shipped a junked out F-104 from Los Angeles to his hanger in Belfast, Maine. He sent some pictures to me so I could get some idea how bad it was. It was in very sad shape with holes punched into it, a lot of missing panels, the wrong tail cone and was basically gutted. He asked $25,000.00 for it. I sat down with the team and we had to make a decision. He was the only show in town we could afford so we passed the hat and we came up with a plan. We offered $15,000.00 up front in September 1998, with a $5000.00 payment in January of 99 and the final payment in July of 99. Keith Zanghi paid the freight bill of $3000.00 to have it transported to Spanaway, Washington.

Upon arrival, we were pretty disappointed in the condition of the aircraft but we were certainly proud owners of this beast. We knew there would be much hard work ahead of us but when you are as tenacious as we are, it didn’t seem all that bad.

We weren’t sure which aircraft we had because there was so much paint and graffiti all over the aircraft you couldn’t tell what it’s number was. The serial number plate indicated it was serial number 1051 but at the time I didn’t know how that related. While stripping paint off the fuselage I found the aircraft number 763 about third layer down. I then wrote to the Department of the Air Force historical research agency at Maxwell AFB. They sent the history of 763 to me. It was designated NF-104A s/n 56-763 and it had spent almost all its life as a research aircraft at Edwards AFB CA. It went to the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center, Davis-Monthan AFB in 1970 then was dropped from inventory in September 1971 as surplus. It was sold to a company in LA where they used it to make templates for parts they manufactured and sold to the aircraft industry. It then spent many years sitting in a back lot where the kings of graffiti worked it over. Steve Alex had purchased it and let it sit on his lot for some time and then we came along with a wild and crazy idea of setting a world land speed record, and bought it.

Go here for general History Behind the F-104.

We invite you to add a comment, or remark, about our program or the site.

[Privacy Policy]