F6F Hellcat projects

[Lon Moer]

Yanks Air Museum posted this on their FB page three days ago (2/20)

https://www.facebook.com/pg/YanksAirMuseum/posts/?ref=page_internal

Yesterday we mated the port wing on the Hellcat. Progress happens everyday, but milestones like this are cause for celebration. Everybody give the restoration department some words of encouragement!

[Dan Jones]

What's the identity of this F6F? Is this 40467? And where did it come from? Doesn't seem to be in the Registry.

[JohnTerrell]

I wonder if there will be an eventual legal fight between Yanks and Rod Lewis over claiming the 40467 identity. I'm sure Yanks would like their Hellcat to be registered as 40467, as it is often claimed as, but that is the identity that Rod Lewis' Hellcat (former TFC) has been registered as already. Both aircraft are said to incorporate parts from 40467 (F6F-3), though the identity of Rod Lewis' Hellcat, in the past, was also that of 80141 (F6F-5) - I believe the identity it was registered as was changed from 80141 to 40467 during its last years in the UK with TFC (perhaps around the same time it gained the -3 era type windows behind the cockpit). Of course both parties would want their Hellcat to have the claim as being 40467, since that is the connection to Navy ace Alex Vraciu (perhaps the seemingly quite lengthy overhaul/restoration work being done at Ezell's on the Lewis Hellcat has something to do with it too). Both Hellcats are built up from parts of a few different airframes between them.

Last edited by JohnTerrell on Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[RobC]

John, I'm going from memory, but isn't the current Yanks Hellcat a rebuild of the very substantial (non-fatal) remains of the ex-Tom Friedkin/Cinema Air Hellcat?

[JohnTerrell]

According to registry entries, it was F6F-5 Hellcat BuNo.80141 that was registered as N100TF and operated by Tom Friedkin until the crash in 1979. Following that, it was rebuilt by Yankee Air Corps (previous name of Yanks) and is the aircraft that was acquired by The Fighter Collection in 1989, where it was operated until being sold to Rod Lewis in 2015. It was I believe around 2004/2005 that that airframe's registered BuNo. was changed in the UK from 80141 (F6F-5), as it had also previously been in the US, to 40467 (an F3F-3). It is said that during the rebuild at Yankee Air Corps/Yanks, it incorporated parts from 08831 and 40467 (both F6F-3's). According to some write-ups about the Yanks' current F6F-3 Hellcat project, it supposedly has utilized leftover parts from 40467, 08831, and maybe even 80141 as well. There are many pages around the internet that claim the current Yanks' Hellcat as being 40467, despite the Rod Lewis/ex-TFC Hellcat already being registered as 40467 through the FAA, and there are many internet pages that still report the Rod Lewis/ex-TFC Hellcat as its old identity, 80141, as well.

There is a similar matter pertaining to some Corsair restorations, using parts from shared airframes/same BuNo.'s - for instance, one F4U-5 currently flying in the US is registered with the same BuNo. that another F4U-5 being restored to fly in France claims to be.

[Lon Moer]

According to YAM this Hellcat was the former Alex Vraciu's Hellcat and came to them from the Victory Air Museum.

[bdk]

Recovered by POF in Chino from Earl Reinert/Victory Air Museum in Illinois. I think that tailcone actually went onto Bob Pond's Hellcat, but that was a long time ago so I may be misremembering.

[Triplane102]

Thanks for the info. Matt & John, I did not know those details. Learn something new....

[Chris Brame]

A couple more shots from earlier than Earl. Possibly one of these three at Chicago Vocational High School in 1950:


and not long before Earl got it, in 1957 (upper left):

[stryper]

Fagen Fighters posted an update on Facebook, of their Hellcat progress at Fighter Rebuilders in Chino. Sorry, I don't know how to post pics

https://www.facebook.com/FagenFightersW ... =3&theater