KALAMAZOO F9F

Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:03 am

The Providence Journal www.projo.com is reporting that The Saratoga Foundation has aquired the damaged Panther & is going to restore & display the aircraft in the markings of Ted Williams Marine Corps mount. Its good to see the aircraft will be repaired well enough to be displayed, just too bad its not being brought back to flight status.
Regards
Robbie

Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:32 am

Ok..going on my bad memory here...We did a stop with the bombers a couple years ago at Arlington, WA..There was a small museum there with a number of interesting airframes such as an F4F, Sinatra's Learjet, and an F9F...among many others. The F9F I want to say came out of South America and is/was in beautful condition. The serial numbers were thought to match an airframe that Ted Williams flew. The Museum is now defunct and I want to say the panther went to Paul Allen. Can anyone confirm this? I had the stomach flu during this stop and was on alot of meds...thats my excuse and I am sticking to it.

JimH

Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:23 pm

The title did say "Kalamazoo F9F". Is this the one we are talking about?
http://community.webshots.com/photo/475 ... 0109Cmfojb

Mike

Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:36 pm

I am sorry I have not mastered the art of cut & paste or else I would have put the the article up here. "Quote; The Saratoga Foundation recently bought a Panther jet that had been damaged in a crash landing at an air show near Kalamazoo, Mich; it is 1 of only 9 Panthers remaining from a production run of 1300. The foundation plans to bring the plane to Rhode Island and restore it with the same markings that (Ted) Williams plane bore: the tomcat logo of Squadron VMF-311." Sounds like it might be the Arthur Wolk airplane.
Robbie :?:

Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:21 pm

Sounds like it might be the Arthur Wolk airplane.

It's most likely Art Wolk's plane. There was an auction at the Air Zoo in November and the Panther was one the aircraft up for auction. I never found out who it was sold to, so this may be the answer.

Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:58 pm

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:37 am Post subject:

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I talk to Larry Webster earlier and its Art old aircraft its going to be restored in RI and then go on display. I guess the plane is rather heavly damage by what Larry told me both wings gave to be complety rebuild and the nose section is stoved up also.

The nose is completely smashed right up to the instrument panel. Various cockpit instruments and parts were knocked arounf quite a bit too. I can recall there isn't much left of the instrument panel or the rudder pedals. One of the wings is also completely shredded. The other one actually didn't look that bad, but the damage was probably hidden by the flatbed it was sitting on. They have quite a lenghty and expensive rebuild ahead of them.