CF-104 Starfighter remounted outside Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

An eye-catching centrepiece has been remounted outside the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.

The CF-104 Starfighter was safely put back in its place at the museum entrance after a three-year-long restoration project.

The fighter jet was initially installed in 1996 when the museum’s new facility was opened.

It was brought down for a structural inspection and new paint job in 2016.

CHCH News visited the small group of dedicated museum volunteers who took on the re-restoration project in 2017. The team blasted the entire plane to remove all of its markings in order to create a blank canvas for the redesign.

The aircraft was then painted in the exact markings it would have worn in 1965 when based at Cold Lake Alberta.

Canadian built CF-104 Starfighters were flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force as interceptors from 1961 to 1986, before being replaced by the current CF-18 Hornets.

The aircraft was officially reinstalled on Nov. 6.