Thomas Hinderks felt like a kid at Christmas when two shipping containers delivered pieces of a Canadair CF-104D Starfighter aircraft to the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton, Canada, Friday morning. After waiting almost 18 months to acquire the Cold War-era plane from the Netherlands, the museum’s executive director didn’t hesitate to sling himself up six feet into one of the two cockpits of his new big-kid toy.
“It was euphoric,” Hinderks said with a grin. “Now I’m just excited to get it into Canadian colours and open it to the public.”
Hinderks said he had been looking for a Starfighter — one of the fastest planes ever flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force — for the past seven years. Through a broker, he learned that the Dutch had a sleek, well-preserved plane that the museum could afford.
The Aviation Museum received thousands of dollars in donations from people across Canada to help purchase the plane in 2011. They also received a $40,000 donation from the family of Don Hamilton, who was an avid supporter of the downtown airport where his company Air Spray Ltd. resides. Hamilton died in 2011.
For the complete story by Amanda Ash of the Edmonton Journal, click here.
