CF-104 "850" (12850) of 1 Air Division RCAF Europe, with the Vicon recce pod in 1967

CF-104, Canadair Model CL-90, Lockheed Model 683-04-12, Canadair construction number 683A-1150, RCAF serial number 12850, built by Canadair
received on August 20, 1963 as 12850; first unit 1 Air Division in Europe
TM69 at RAF Woodbridge with 439 squadron in August 1969; reserialed as 104850 effective June 1970
PDM at Prestwick February 19, 1973 (1 CAG); struck off service May 23, 1973
to Norway on November 19, 1973 with 1.921 flight hours coded "850"; withdrawn from use December 6, 1982 with 3.482 flight hours and stored at Sola AB, to Norwegian AF museum
 delivered to USA in 1994 as a trading object for a Harvard aircraft; the new owner became Steve Alex, Maine USA
he wanted to make the aircraft fly worthy again and registered the aircraft "N104JT" for "Jet Tech systems" which was a company owned by him
the project stopped and the aircraft was sold to Rick Svetkoff; he brought it over to St Petersburg, Florida in July 1997
that same month the aircraft had its first engine runs and on October 30, 1997 it made its first "civil" flight; it was still bare metal with a white tail
late 1997, early 1998 it received its bright blue-white color scheme; the aircraft was always flown by the late Tom "Sharkbait" Delashaw
1999 the aircraft received a new registration "N104RD", 2004 seen flying from KSC, Florida; November 2019 noted; stored, non-operational status; November 2024 noted for spares!

copyright © Günter Gronstein