Palm Springs Air Museum adds a MiG-21 and a T-28...

[Warbirdnerd]

A Cold War-era Russian MiG-21 supersonic jet fighter and a U.S. T-28 Trojan military trainer are the latest additions to the Palm Springs Air Museum's collection of vintage airplanes.

The MiG-21 was disassembled into sections — body, tail and wings — and brought Monday from Thermal on two flatbed trucks.
The fuselage was lifted off a truck by a huge crane as Dick Hunter, the man who orchestrated the donation, looked on with a big smile.
Hunter, a museum volunteer, talked about how fortunate he was to come across the “dream” find.
“I was just at the Jacqueline Cochran Airport in Thermal, and this plane was sitting there,” Hunter said. “I sat there and stared at it for 20 minutes.”
Then a man approached Hunter, handed him a cell phone, and the woman on the line told Hunter she wanted to donate it to the air museum.
“She said, ‘I've tried six other places, but no one wanted the plane,'” Hunter said.
The MiG-21, valued at $65,000, was donated by Libuse “Lilly” Hornak, widow of Stefan Hornak, an MiG collector and owner and founder of Aviation Museum Inc. of Thermal.
After her husband's death, she married Vladimir Hnateck, an airplane mechanic who worked in Aero Vodochody, the Czechoslovakian factory that made many of the MiG planes.
The fighter plane is the first enemy aircraft acquired by the museum.
“Its heyday was in the late '60s, early '70s,” said Fred Bell, vice president of the Palm Springs Air Museum board of directors. “It was a potent adversary against the F-4 Phantom in Vietnam.”
The MiG-21, once reassembled, will be displayed next to the F-4 Phantom in front of the air museum.
The aircraft is the second in less than a week to be added to the museum's 30-plus plane collection.
On Wednesday, Chuck Daubenberger, owner of Da/Pro Rubber Inc. based out of Valencia, donated a T-28 trainer.
The piston-engine North American Aviation T-28 Trojan, first put in use in the 1950s, is used as a trainer by the U.S. Air Force and Navy, but also was used in counter-insurgency, primarily during the Vietnam War.
“The addition of the T-28 allows us to expand our collection beyond World War II aircraft, and to continue to tell the story of aviation throughout modern history,” Bell said.
“It couldn't find a better home,” Daubenberger said.

Found it here:
http://www.mydesert.com/article/2012030 ... CFrontpage

[51fixer]

A Cold War-era Russian MiG-21 supersonic jet fighter and a U.S. T-28 Trojan military trainer are the latest additions to the Palm Springs Air Museum's collection of vintage airplanes.

The MiG-21 was disassembled into sections — body, tail and wings — and brought Monday from Thermal on two flatbed trucks.
The fuselage was lifted off a truck by a huge crane as Dick Hunter, the man who orchestrated the donation, looked on with a big smile.
Hunter, a museum volunteer, talked about how fortunate he was to come across the “dream” find.
“I was just at the Jacqueline Cochran Airport in Thermal, and this plane was sitting there,” Hunter said. “I sat there and stared at it for 20 minutes.”
Then a man approached Hunter, handed him a cell phone, and the woman on the line told Hunter she wanted to donate it to the air museum.
“She said, ‘I've tried six other places, but no one wanted the plane,'” Hunter said.
The MiG-21, valued at $65,000, was donated by Libuse “Lilly” Hornak, widow of Stefan Hornak, an MiG collector and owner and founder of Aviation Museum Inc. of Thermal.
After her husband's death, she married Vladimir Hnateck, an airplane mechanic who worked in Aero Vodochody, the Czechoslovakian factory that made many of the MiG planes.
The fighter plane is the first enemy aircraft acquired by the museum.
“Its heyday was in the late '60s, early '70s,” said Fred Bell, vice president of the Palm Springs Air Museum board of directors. “It was a potent adversary against the F-4 Phantom in Vietnam.”
The MiG-21, once reassembled, will be displayed next to the F-4 Phantom in front of the air museum.
The aircraft is the second in less than a week to be added to the museum's 30-plus plane collection.
On Wednesday, Chuck Daubenberger, owner of Da/Pro Rubber Inc. based out of Valencia, donated a T-28 trainer.
The piston-engine North American Aviation T-28 Trojan, first put in use in the 1950s, is used as a trainer by the U.S. Air Force and Navy, but also was used in counter-insurgency, primarily during the Vietnam War.
“The addition of the T-28 allows us to expand our collection beyond World War II aircraft, and to continue to tell the story of aviation throughout modern history,” Bell said.
“It couldn't find a better home,” Daubenberger said.

Found it here:
http://www.mydesert.com/article/2012030 ... CFrontpage

Interesting as Bob Pond's T-28 is for sale on Courtesy Aircraft Sales for 120K.

[Warbirdnerd]

Interesting as Bob Pond's T-28 is for sale on Courtesy Aircraft Sales for 120K.

I THINK the Piper Cub, T-34, T-28 and one of the Stearmans were never part of the Museum's collection and still owned by the Pond Family. Not a bad profit on the T-28 and T-34. Bob got both of them for $1 a piece (and a large donation to the NMNA)...

[Seafury1]

N28BP is still at the PSAM and is waiting to be sold, The Stearman and the T-34 were sold, and True, those airplanes were never part of the collection. The cub however is part of the museum and is now painted North African. The new T-28 N372C Bu 183203 was a gracious donation and is much appreciated. The museum is trying to track history on this aircraft right now. So if anyone has photos of her, Please post them (see my other thread)

[JohnB]

The Grumman Goose at the museum has also been sold. The new owners shipped it out last week to its new home for restoration.

Should be flying again in 3-4 years.

[Seafury1]

The goose left Friday

http://www.pacificflyer.com/2012/03/add ... s-a-goose/

[SIDSIKO]

The service history of T-28B 138203 is as follows

Accepted by the Navy 1 April 1955.
Delivered to O&R Corpus Christi, TX 15 April 1955.
Transport Pool, Corpus Christi, TX 28 April 1955.
NAS NAATC Memphis, TN 31 May 1955.
O&R Pensacola, FL 14 Aug 1956.
NAAS NABTC Whiting Field, FL 3 Jan 1957.
BTG-7, Memphis, TN 20 November 1958.
O&R Pensacola, FL 27 April 1960.
Storage Facility, Litchfiled Park, AZ 11 May 1960.
To Fleet Readiness, Columbus, OH 19 September 1961.
Struck off Navy charge, 14 Dec 1961 with a total time of 2296 hours.

Looks like it became N131Z with the USFS sometime in 1966, which leads the question as to where it had been between the end of 1961 and 1966? A lot of very similar ex USN machines were pulled out of storage to see service with the VNAF.

Regards

Sid

[Seafury1]

Good stuff!!! Thanks Sid!

In the books there are a lot of "Intermountain Aviation" entries i have to look at the dates, but They are post Navy, pre or concurrent USFS, will look tomorrow.

[Seafury1]

Just found the logs, and it shows it flying in the Portland, southern Washington area in 62, then regular annuals at "Intermountain Aviation" in Marana after that. USFS?

[donno21]

I'm new to the site,must admit its fascinating.Any one have any history on the '21? I'm curious as I worked '17's and 21's for many years and often wonder what happened to our "Fleet" from Tonapah.

[Seafury1]

Last I heard, these are Czech airplanes that were imported in the late 80's early 90's (the first to come in after the fall) and have been first stored at PSP them TRM. They never flew and were part of the Mig museum. It is complete with logs. Lilly, the lady that owned them, is moving back to Europe and is getting rid of all her stuff.