The F-104 Starfighter was a revolutionary design with short razor-sharp wings. It was the first aircraft to be able to maintain Mach 2 not just in short bursts. The Starfighter shattered speed and rate of climb records that still are impressive today. This extremely high speed earned the plane the nickname “The Missile With A Man In It”. Because of financial considerations 15 or more countries purchased the F-104. The Starfighter flew with the USAF in 1958 and the last airplane was decommissioned in Italy in 2004.

The West German AF received their first RF-104G in November 1963. One of the RF-104Gs delivered was EA+235 that arrived on November 22, 1963. In July 1966 four Starfighters from the West German Air Force AG51 “Immelmann” based at Ingolstadt-Manching AB did an exchange with Canadian Starfighters from the 439 th and 441 st Squadrons based at RCAF Marville, France. During the exchange West German aircraft from AG51 wore their “Red Squirrel” logo and Canadian flags on the tail covering any AG51 markings. AG51 was decommissioned on March 17, 1993.