Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

January 28, 2002

Well, the team has been spending a lot of time working on the Eagle.   Ed Shadle, Jon Higley, Russ Garlow and DiDi  Boyington have been punching the time clock on a regular basis these past few months.  It may sound like a broken record but as you know from our previous updates  we are still doing the skin work.  The vertical stabilizer is coming along. The final few damaged patches are slowing disappearing with brand new skin.  In a few months we may even be ready to apply a fresh coat of  paint on the monster!  We call it a monster because it is just so big.  Thats an understatement.  Most car projects are about 1/3 the size, and progress is more discernable.  Its fun to watch people's reactions when they see the car for the first time.  Many of you will have an opportunity this March when the North American Eagle will be shown on an upcoming episode of National Geographic's "The Human Edge."  When it gets a little closer we will give you the exact aire dates.

One of the best things about working on a project like this is all the amazing and talented people you meet.  Great people like Dan Sabovich, The General Manager of Mojave Airport in California, to television superstars like Jay Leno.  One of those talented folks we have met over the years has passed away recently.  Tom Llufrio was a good man.  He died suddenly of a heart attack January 9th: He was only 39.   Many of you probably know him as Tom, the guy who worked for Bob Pailca.  Pilot, fiberglass expert and longtime member of the Experimental Aircraft Association.  Tom lent his expertise to the North American Eagle project as the guy who did our fiberglass work on the wing roots.  He will be sorely missed.  His mark will remain forever on the Eagle.

One of our team members  forwarded Ed  a request about the F-104  we are using for our landspeed project.  Here in Ed's words is some of  the history about the aircraft and how we managed to obtain it.

The F-104A we are using is serial number 1051 which matches up to 56-763. When removing layers of paint I came to the layer with the old Air Force number, FG-763 on the fuselage. It was delivered to the US Air Force in August of 1957 and assigned to Edwards AFB Flight Test Center. Within months it was reassigned to Westinghouse for an engine development project.  After about one year it was then reassigned to General Electric where it was used for more engine testing of newer versions of the J-79. In 1960 it was assigned once again to the Flight Test Center. It was utilized during that time as a chase aircraft in the X-15 project. A photographer from NASA found some pictures of the aircraft during that era, one of which is escorting the X-15 to a landing.   The tail number had been changed to 60-763.  It turns out that the actual air force number is 56-0763 and they sometimes drop the 5 and just put up 60-763. I found that it had been changed when it was reassigned to the Flight Test Center in 1960.

During the late fifties, it was assigned to a maintenance squadron and then redesignated as an NF-104 and was destined to be used along with 56-756, 56-760 and 56-762 as high altitude astronaut trainers. When the project was cancelled it had not been fitted with the rocket engine and was placed back into the maintenance squadron. It was sent to Davis Monthom AFB in 1970 and was surplused in 1971. The aircraft was sold to a contractor in Los Angeles and was used for creating templates for spare parts. It finally outlived any usefulness and was pretty well stripped of everything useful. It lay around their yard for many years until Steve Alex purchased it then moved it to Maine where it was waiting to be made into a display model for someones amusement park.

I bought it 3 1/2 years ago from Steve and had it shipped out West to Spanaway, Washington. Since that time I have spend hundreds if not thousands of man hours repairing all the damage the poor aircraft sustained. I have repaired all the damaged frames, replaced large sections of skin, built a new empennage from a discarded G model and made the engine room ready for a fresh J-79. I've tried to build it so that when I'm done using it for the land speed project I can put it back into a configuration with wings and horizontal stabilizer and put it on display as the real thing.

I'm very proud to own this aircraft. When I found that it had been flown by test pilots such as Joe Engle, Pete Knight, Bill Dana, Scott Crossfield and others of that era, I was extremely excited. Most of the F-104 records go up to 56-762 then skip to 764. It seems that 763 was lost and forgotten. I'm glad that I found it.........Ed Shadle

To read the letter sent to Ed Shadle confirming Gen. Yeager flew 56-0763, click here.

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