Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

April 13, 2000

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It seems like everyone in the Puyallup area has stopped by North American Eagle shop (courtesy of Wings West Aviation). The small airport named Thun Field has its occasional Learjets fly in from time to time, but nothing like the F-104. Anyone who has ever been in the Air Force or knew someone in the Air Force has been by to see 56-763. A lot of people think we are restoring the old bird into flying condition. You can imagine the their faces when we tell them the rest of the story.  We have met a lot of nice people.

This weekend we receive shipment of some missing pieces to our big puzzle. When the team purchased our F-104 it was minus some critical panels, all of which are no longer in production. When the F-104s were first produced, they came equipped with a downward ejection seat. This option was not an easy procedure, especially on take off and landings. The maneuver in this case was to roll the aircraft upside down and eject upward. Not a popular maneuver. Not long after, the aircraft was modified so the pilot could eject up and out past the canopy.  Well, our plane was delivered with this part of the cockpit missing, leaving about a 2 ft by 4 ft opening in the floor of the cockpit.   Through our sources we were able to appropriate the missing panel. As usual it did not want to go in very easy, so with a little modifications the hatch fit like a glove. We also found a replacement for the forward gun door located on the left hand side of the vehicle. Both of these pieces had us concern, because if we had not found them on the secondary market, they would have had to been built by hand: a very time consuming endeavor.

We had hope to have the entire vehicle ready to apply paint by the end of last month. We have now slid this to the right 30 days. When this task is complete Ed and myself will start on an extensive sponsorship recruitment program.  This will consume most of our time. We'll have to trade in our coveralls for the business suits.

If you would like to see a better picture of Ed Shadle, Ron Norman or myself (Keith Zanghi) you might go to our new team page biographies.   It includes pictures of us at the controls of the Lockheed SR 71 Blackbird.   This particular aircraft is one of four remaining Blackbirds, all operated by NASA at Dryden Flight Test Center. The photos are courtesy of Tony Landis at NASA Dryden.

Lastly, we want to thank Wayne Olson for sending us some estimated acceleration data on the vehicle. I have placed it on our server as a .pdf file, so you will need Acrobat Reader to view it. He has gone to a lot of work that I think you all will find it an enjoyable read.  Thanks Wayne.

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

[Privacy Policy]