As its name suggests, Starfighters utilizes Lockheed F-104 Starfighters, with the two on parade having been purchased from the Canadian and Italian air forces, respectively. The Italian one, the F-104S, is notable as having been the last Starfighter in use by NATO.
3.06.2025
A Starfighter before being escorted on parade, with Midland Municipal Court behind it.
Luke Dias
Starfighters Inc. moved into its new hangar space Monday. To commemorate, it held a parade down Wall Street along Centennial Park, driving two of its planes down the street as onlookers cheered them on.
“Basically, (we are) showing everyone in Midland that we are now bringing in part of our assets to help with their spaceport development,” said Rick Svetkoff, the president and CEO of Starfighters Space. “People will probably see the trucks coming into the airport, and we wanted to give the initial show to the folks here that have supported our program.”
“The F-104 is one of the hottest, fastest airplanes there is that is still operational, (and) we’re the last operator of the F-104,” Svetkoff said. “It’s a Mach 2 aircraft, and (that) is significant in the fact that the size of the payload that you put on the aircraft can be reduced in size based upon the speed you’re giving it when you release that payload. And the size of the vehicle that you’re launching is directly related to the cost of the vehicle.”
Per contractsit has with NASA and the Department of Defense, Starfighters plans to use its planes for hypersonic (Mach 5) development and eventually air-launch programs. it also intends to build a jet engine shop and hopes to recruit local prospective mechanics and technicians who are passionate about aerospace.
“I think we can help a lot with the aerospace industry,” Svetkoff said. “Aerospace is probably the biggest (industry) right now, especially commercial aerospace as you can see with SpaceX and Blue Origin. NASA is slowly winding down their operational side, and I think they will take more of an administrative play (as commercial companies) are now making huge strides and gains in the industry.”
NASA recently experienced the loss of Elon Musk-backed Jared Isaacman as its potential head and is poised to suffer from a sweeping series of budget cuts, layoffs and cancelled projects next year. Svetkoff, who has several partnerships with NASA, said that despite projecting commercial aerospace to be the future, “NASA is a tremendous innovator and has multiple experience levels within the space community. I think (they) will be a key player with the development of future space operations.”
Starfighters, headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, will be bringing in additional assets over the next two months and will begin operations. Svetkoff says he is very excited to begin business in Midland and would like to thank Midland Development Corp., the city of Midland and Midland International Air and Space Port for their continued support.
“We are very excited about what we can do at Midland because there’s a lot of vast air space out here that is currently unused,” he said. “Right now, the various NASA facilities are very, very difficult for aerospace because the industry has gathered so much steam and a lot of vehicles (go through there). And we just wanted to have an opportunity to expand our operations beyond Kennedy Space Center.”
Quelle: Hearst Newspapers
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