PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) - An airplane that once helped set speed records returned home for a visit this weekend - in the form of a rocket car its owners also hope will go very fast.

The fuselage of an F-104 Starfighter jet that was flown by such renowned test pilots as Chuck Yeager and Scott Crossfield at Edwards Air Force Base has been wrapped around a rocket engine and will try to break the land speed record some time next year.

The plane has been renamed the North American Eagle and its new owners hope it will recapture the record of 763 mph now held by Andy Green of the United Kingdom.

The car's driver, Ed Shadle, and co-owner Keith Zanghi found the aircraft frame at a scrap yard in Maine. The pair later discovered that the plane was used in the 1950s and 1960s to train the pilots who would later fly the record-setting X-15 rocket plane.

The North American Eagle was displayed over the weekend in Palmdale and will be tested next month on the El Mirage dry lake in San Bernardino County.

The new owners hope to attempt the record on July 4, 2007.