Original Items: One-of-a-kind set. This is a great piece of U.S. "Space Race" history! The Lockheed NF-104A was an American mixed-power, high-performance, supersonic aerospace trainer that served as a low-cost astronaut training vehicle for the North American X-15 and projected Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar programs.

If you have read the book The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, or seen the movie made by Philip Kaufman, then you know about this plane. Only three were made, the first two were delivered October 1963, with the last delivered in early November of the same year. It was this last NF-104A, USAF 56-0762, that Legendary WWII Ace and Test Pilot Chuck Yeager took up on 10 December 1963, which ended with him ejecting and the plane being destroyed. This event is chronicled in the book and shown in the movie.

This piece of aircraft aluminum is from that very plane, recovered from the crash sight. The piece itself is about 1 1/2" by 1", is mounted inside of the frame. To the left of the piece is Chuck Yeager's signature, and both are underneath a picture of NF-104A - USAF 56-0756. As the plane was crashed so soon after delivery, there are very few available pictures of it, so another example was used. Below the fuselage piece is a short paragraph:

FRAGMENT OF THE NF-104A STARFIGHTER FROM
WHICH COL. CHUCK YEAGER EJECTED ON
DECEMBER 10,1963

All of this is very nicely mounted under a sheet of glass in a metal frame. It measures about 19 1/4" x 14 1/2" x 7/8", and is in wonderful display condition.A great piece of space race and test pilot memorabilia!