The Taoyuan Aerotropolis Museum is to begin trial operations on Thursday, with a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter jet among the first exhibits.
The museum was built on the site of the former air base near Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, after the Taoyuan City Government designated 60 facilities inside the base as historic sites.
The facilities were divided into seven categories: aircraft maintenance area; barracks of photographic technical units; air force’s 6th Reconnaissance Group flight operation zone; Runway 05 threshold security zone; accommodation and leisure facilities for members of the air force and US military personnel; blast-resistant command post; and meteorological observation station.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan Cultural Affairs Bureau
The Run05 threshold security zone includes four aircraft maintenance aprons for the Black Cat Squadron (黑貓中隊), which was in charge of flying U-2 surveillance planes and collecting intelligence in China from 1961 to 1974.
The single-engine, supersonic interceptor (F-104G) that would be on display on Thursday used to be on display at the Yizhen Park (役政公園) in Keelung. It was dismantled and permanently transferred to the museum last year.
Created as a day fighter by Lockheed for the US Air Force, the F-104 jet was an all-weather multirole aircraft in the early 1960s and extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War.
In 1960, the air force started a squadron that operated F-104 jets as part of the “Alishan Project” (阿里山計畫), a plan launched by the Ministry of National Defense that catapulted the nation’s air force into a supersonic age.
With its interception capacity of up to Mach 2, the fighter jet gave Taiwan an advantage over China in air combat capabilities in the 1970s and 1980s.
However, the commercial sources for the F-104’s logistics support vanished after production of the aircraft ceased, subsequently leading to a decrease in the fighter jet’s serviceability rate and an increase in the accident rate. The fleet was retired on May 22, 1998.
Throughout the Alishan Project from 1960 to 1990, the nation received 247 F-104 jets from the US.
The F-104 is to be displayed within an aircraft maintenance apron of Runway 05 threshold zone during the trial operations.
Another apron would house a special exhibition of the late first-class General Chou Chih-jou (周至柔), who served as air force commander and chief of general staff.
Chou was credited for modernizing the air force and brought in the support from the First American Volunteer Group — nicknamed the Flying Tigers (飛虎隊) — during the Sino-Japanese War.
He was awarded the order of National Glory, the highest honor granted to military personnel in Taiwan.
The Taoyuan City Government said the Taoyuan Aerotropolis Museum is an appropriate venue to store historic artifacts as it is equipped with air-conditioning and humidity control systems as stated in regulations governing the preservation of cultural assets.
The museum would not show aircraft previously on display at the Aviation Museum inside Taoyuan airport, operator Taoyuan International Airport Co (TIAC) said.
The Aviation Museum, which was owned by TIAC, closed in 2014 to make way for the airport’s third runway and taxiways projects.
Its collections were returned, leased or donated to the military or schools, TIAC said.
The city did not borrow any item from the Aviation Museum, it added.
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