Starfighters Impairs Aerovision Deposits and Sues Seller
The F-104 operator booked a $5.15 million deposit impairment and a $11.46 million net loss for the three months ended June 30, 2026.
Starfighters Space, Inc. (FJET) fully impaired $5.15 million of deposits paid to Aerovision LLC for F-4 Phantom II aircraft and recorded a net loss of $11,458,207 for the three months ended June 30, 2026, compared with $1,934,427 a year earlier.
A loss-contingency event occurred because Aerovision stopped communicating and ignored demand letters asking it to perform or return the money. As of June 30, 2026, the deposits were fully impaired. On August 10, 2026, Starfighters International, Inc. filed a complaint in Brevard County, Florida, against Hunter Daniels d/b/a Aerovision and Mark Daniels for breach of contract, conversion, unjust enrichment, fraudulent inducement and negligent misrepresentation.
The subsidiary had paid two installments totaling $5,000,000 in January and March 2025 under an aircraft agreement that originally covered twelve decommissioned F-4 Phantom IIs. Aerovision never supplied information on aircraft availability.
Operating loss was $11,600,156. Selling, general and administrative costs were $6,448,238, including $2,667,978 of stock-based compensation. The rest of the increase related to marketing after its December 2025 NYSE American listing, professional fees for public-company reporting and disputes, and personnel costs from hiring employees, including converting contractors.
Research and development expense fell to $1,918 from $186,513 a year earlier after the company completed the initial STARLAUNCH 1 testing phase and began preparing further work. Flight training income was zero versus $266,240; the company undertook no such flights. Interest expense was zero after convertible debentures and a Space Florida note converted at the listing.
The company also recognized a $395,033 loss from misappropriation of assets tied to $1,921,159 of unauthorized withdrawals and transfers by former CEO Rick Svetkoff, after netting $1,526,126 of related-party notes it could not collect.
Svetkoff resigned on February 19, 2026. The board appointed Tim Franta as chief executive on February 22, 2026. On April 9, 2026, Svetkoff sued the company, Franta, other directors and Flagship Bank, seeking damages alleged to exceed $26,000,000. The company denies the allegations, is preparing a motion to dismiss, and is evaluating counterclaims.
Flagship Bank has restricted all SFII accounts holding more than $1.1 million of cash and short-term investments, and Regions Bank has restricted Texas subsidiary accounts holding about $0.2 million of cash, due to the control dispute.
On May 27, 2026, Starfighters completed a private placement of 5,223,879 shares at $3.35 for $17,499,995 of gross proceeds. It intends to use net proceeds for operational expansion, infrastructure and the STARLAUNCH platform, including launch readiness and mission execution.
The company operates the world’s only commercial fleet of flight-ready F-104 supersonic aircraft, with three flight-ready, three flight-capable and one not flight-capable, and plans a seven-aircraft fleet from Kennedy Space Center and Midland, Texas. In January 2026 it completed wind-tunnel testing of STARLAUNCH 1 separation at Mach 0.85 and Mach 1.3 and began procuring instrumented drop-test articles.