Starfighter Cockpit

[Quincey Homer]

Thisis the fifth build in the series and the most collaborative. Elliot wanted the cockpit in the middle, and my wife said "yeah, and then the ship has to turn around it"! Okay, that's a tall order for something that has to be strong enough to play with, but we got it done. It was great to have the whole family come together to design and build this ship. The turning play feature allows the pilot to adjust position of the different tools on the outer ring.

One weekend afternoon, I was looking for something to do with our three year old in the house. We went to the Lego room, "What do you want to build?", "A spaceship!" Elliot answered, "An E-Wing!" We were a couple of years too late for the great FBTB starfighter letter contest, but we got right to work anyway.

We got the seat panels inserted into the expedition boat and just as a double check, I placed my recumbent seat onto the carbon seat panel and used the cranks and drive from Critical Power 2 to check where the pedals will be. It all fit perfectly.

We also got the port light (windows) holes cut out of the cabin top, so we placed the top onto the hull while I sat in the seat. For a moment, I was ready launch a plasma bomb to destroy the death star from my X-wing fighter starfighter cockpit seat. Then I confirmed that nothing interfered with the pedal revolution (it's a human power X-wing) and checked the view out the windows (making sure that the horizon from my eye level was mid-window). All worked perfectly according to plan. Whew! Exciting!!!

I joked with Ken that I want to get the hugest bank of flashing lights and switches and gauges filling up both of those arm rests. Of course, they would do nothing, but how cool would that look!

Labels: boatbuilding

Looks like you can always make a living as a purse seiner if the economy goes down the shitter, after all.

It's sweet seeing something in the flesh that you have just dreamed about, materialized, eh?

Greg, I don't see any channels cut in the bottom of the cross members to allow for the movement of water within your boat. Are they just not visible in your pics, or are they missing? Without them, the condensation that forms within the areas will form some extra ballast for you, along with mold, mildew and rot...

Best of luck!

Museum guests are treated to the extra special experience of being allowed to sit at the controls and pose for pictures. From 10:00-12:00 each Saturday, a selected aircraft will be opened up and made accessible to the public. Museum Volunteers will also be on hand to answer questions and provide the historical back drop for the aircraft you are sitting in.

Suggested $5 donation for the open cockpit experience includes souvenir Air Museum provided photograph. Air Museum admission also applies. The Palm Springs Air Museum reserves the right to refuse access to anyone deemed to be a hazard to themselves, other guests/staff and/ or the aircraft.

The pics I have seen of Italian and USAF interiors seem to be a more bluish-grey then dark gull grey. Also the C-2 ejection seat doesnt seem to be as dark as DGG. Maybe its just the lighting in all the pics ive seen, but is DGG definitely the colour for cockpit interior and seat?

Definitely 36231; be very wary of trying to decipher colours, from photos. I have photos of the XP-51, taken at Oshkosh, and the flash turned the cockpit green back to yellow. Flash is balanced, to be like daylight, so leans towards blue, and can have all sorts of funny effects.

While attending a model show in South Carolina earlier this year, I scoured the stacks of plastic for sale. A few years ago the hundreds of aircraft offered would have overwhelmed me, but this time was different. My brain mentally filtered out aircraft, looking for some cool scifi kits.

An argument could be made that because this was supposed to have come before the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and others, canonically those would have looked similar to this one. From a backstory standpoint, that may work.

Test fitting showed it to be very typical AMT. While everything fit well generally, none of it was precise. Thick parts, wide but soft panel line detail, and some odd engineering choices showed themselves immediately. None, happily, were major obstacles.

The standout feature of this model is the cockpit. While not sharply cast, it does have enough greeblies to allow it to look good out of the box. I assembled all of the sidewall parts, as well as the aft interior parts. I did leave the seat back out to make painting easier.

One section that did need a slight bit more work was the canopy. It aligned with the fuselage opening in reasonable fashion. However, because the model was intended to have a working canopy that opened upwards from the front, the aft part of the canopy left a fairly significant gap to allow clearance for the movement. In my mind that necessitated either an open or closed canopy only. Because no landing gear were supplied, only a display stand, I opted for the closed canopy.

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was the first U.S. jet fighter in service to fly Mach 2. Designed as a high-performance day fighter, the F-104 had excellent acceleration and top speed. It first flew on February 7, 1954. Highlighted in this image is the cockpit of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

Danish Air Force R-832 was scrapped early October 2006 in a village called Bjerringbro. A cockpit collector from Norway, Jens Rino Haugen, bought the forward fuselage part and brougth it to Grimstad, Norway where it arrived in November 2006 and where he added later in 2010 a proper canopy glass. In May 2017 the cockpit was sold to another collector and it was transported to a new location at Lvenstad. The photo was taken by Tom Svendsen when it was still in Grimstad, on 16 March 2008. Inside the ejectionseat from a Saab Draken was been mounted.F-104G D-8256 (c/n 8256) KLu

At Volkel Air Base a few Starfighters have been used for spareparts while building up the preserved D-8312. One of the victims was D-8256. However they remained the cockpit section and decided to use it for demonstration purposes, like for example during the Dutch Air Force open house in 2007.The photo shows the cockpit being displayed during the open house at Volkel Air Base in June 2007. In 2014 the cockpit was prepared for permanent display inside the Volkel Air Base traditionroom "De Typhoon" as can be seen on the photo taken by Ferry Lotterman in February 2014.F-104G FX-70 (c/n 9119) BAF

On 17 January 1978 Norwegian Starfighter "238" enountered a landing accident and was withdrawn from use. It continued as instructional airframe from 10 October 1978 at the LTB school at Kjevik.In 1984 it went to a private owner who decided to not want it and the aircraft went to a scrapdealer 40km NE of Oslo in 1985. The aircraft was bought by a large scrapdealer in Hokksund 65 km SE of Oslo in 1985 .Jens Rino Haugen managed to buy the cockpit section for his private collection May 1985 at the scrapdealer in Hokksund. Rest of the aircraft was scrapped there in May/June that year. Jens sold the cockpit in 1989 to the Norwegian Starfighter enthousiast and IFS member Erling Revheim in his hometown sane, which is 10 kilometers North East from Bergen, Norway. Also parts have been used from the Starfighter 20+95 (fake serialled "24+76") which was scrapped at scrapdealer North Schrott at Flensburg.CF-104 serial 104818 (c/n 1118) 818 RNorAF

The CF-104 serial 104818 has been cut in September 2010 to save the cockpit section (display). The aircraft had sustained a lot of ABDR training damage and was planned to be scrapped at Kjeller. At this location a team of three persons (Jan Kenneth Furulund, Jim Robin Brten and Juul Furulund) started a project to build a display cockpit section out of the aircraft front fuselage. . From 2018 onwards the result of this project can be found at the Defense Flight Collection at Gardermoen. Photo taken in 2019 thanks to Rinze de Vries.F-104G serial 20+64 (c/n 2075) GAF

On 22 June 1992 the F-104G 20+64 arrived at Erding and it was assigned to the DFL group for display purposes. In July 1993 it was clear that the group only needed the cockpit since that was the only thing left at Erding. It had been cut from the 20+64. On 13 July 1996 it was seen again on an open house at Roth but it was stored inside a container. It was last noticed during a family day at Koln-Wahn mid August 2007. Later that year it moved into storage at Koblenz. In December 2011 it moved to Nordholz where it is now part of the Aeronauticum collection. In between they have modified the cockpit to make it more compact and also repainted the body. Photo was taken at Nordholz by Tim Jones.F-104G serial 20+87 (c/n 6604) GAF

The ex AWX Starfighter 20+87 was withdrawn from use mid 70s and was seen till late 70s on the dump at Erding. Subsequently the aircraft was scrapped but the forward fuselage section was saved for DASA. They decided to use it for their travelling exhibition. For this purpose it was seen in Manching for example in 1993 and in Ummendorf in September 1999. it was last noted Eggebek in 2003. In March 2008 people at Manching stated that the cockpit has been given away. They had no idea where it went....The photo show the forward section of 20+87 during one of the exhibitions of DASA. You still can see the "7" of the serial. Photo was taken at Eggebeck in 2003. In between it is officially owned by the Airbus Group Corporate Heritage, stationed at Munich. It is still used as traveling exhibition cockpit. They have refurbished it a bit and the "7" has been gone on it. October 11, 2016 it was transported to Deutsch-Kanadisches Luftwaffenmuseum (German-Canadian Air Force Museum) Baden-Airpark, Sllingen, on loan from Airbus Group Corporate Heritage.F-104G serial 20+90 (c/n 6607) GAF

German Starfighter 20+90 was one of the many AWX Starfighters which were phased out early 70s due to the replacement by the F-4 Phantom. This particular Starfighter arrived at Erding on 20 February 1975 to be put on storage but soon after it was scrapped. However the forward fuselage section with cockpit was saved and put on display inside the Air Force museum (Deutche Museum) in Munchen (Munich). It was first noted in the late 80s and can still be seen inside the museum today.

The photo shows how the cockpit is used, to demonstrate how the ejection seat works. It has been taken by Mark Wassenaar on 26 September 2006.

Latest news is that it is stored until further notice (already in 2016) and future is very uncertain. The cockpit will not be re-issued in the Deutche Museum.F-104G serial 21+26 (c/n 6687) GAF

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