FJ-2 Fury Survivors

[quemerford]

I've been trying to find the eventual disposition of three FJ-2 Furys which survived in recent times but have now disappeared from their last-known locations; and trying to work out which (if any) of these is the aircraft now displayed at War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa, NM (I've emailed the museum but their mail address doesn't seem to function).

Here goes:

1. An ex-VMF-232 FJ-2 was donated from NAS Alameda to the city of Oakland, CA where it was placed in Mosswood playground as a children's plaything in August 1960. It's no longer there, removed date unknown (photo in Ginter's FJ-2 book).

2. In the early 1970s an FJ-2 (painted to represent FJ-3 BuAer No.141393 and with 'VMF-235' lettering, despite retaining its VMF-232 'WT' tail code) was extant at Stockton Airport, CA: circa 1976 it was painted overall silver with Ugandan AF markings to represent a MiG for the film 'Raid on Entebbe' (filmed at Stockton). It's since gone.

3. In the 1980s, an FJ-2 was displayed on a pole at the Sabre City Trailer Park in Roseville, CA and painted in 44th FBS USAF colours to represent an F-86F '24884'. This aircraft had a replacement canopy from another type fitted, giving the cockpit area a 'flatter' appearance. The trailer park is still there but not the FJ-2.

In the mid-1980s, John Muszala's Pacific Fighters restored BuAer No 132028, which is the machine which went to War Eagles in 1989.

I'm certainly not going to join all those dots, because it's possible that these are all different machines. But can anyone help with movements of any of these?

Incidentally there are two other surviving FJ-2s (one with NMNA at Pensacola (132023 but painted as one of the XFJ-2s) and the other displayed on the USS Hornet at Alameda (132057)); I'm not sure if the 'Hornet' Fury is related to any of the above but the NMNA example isn't. As far as I can ascertain, these pair plus the War Eagles aircraft are the only three survivors from the run of 200 FJ-2s.

[Tulio]

There used to be an FJ, pylon mounted, at the Pelican Island, Galveston, TX near the destroyer DE238 Stewart (IIRC) and a submarine (Name I don't recall)

It looked bad over a quarter of a century ago, when I saw it last...


Saludos,

Tulio

[raconnel]

At one time (a long time ago) there was an FJ-2 displayed on the USS Yorktown. Is that the one in Pensacola?

Richard

[quemerford]

The Yorktown FJ-2 is now with USS Hornet: the Galveston Fury was an FJ-4/4B.

[airnutz]

The sub on display in Galveston is USS Cavalla(SS-244). The Fury FJ-4A was sent to the Historic Aviation Memorial Museum in Tyler, Texas. A really good thing for that bird! She had some pretty serious intergranular corrosion issues. She's spruced up and indoors now.
http://www.tylerhamm.com/planes.html

[quemerford]

So, back to FJ-2s (hopefully ) - anyone able to help?

[quemerford]

Hoping this might jog some memories. The Oakland, Mosswood Park FJ-2:



And the Stockton FJ-2, starring in Raid on Entebbe, circa 1976:



And finally, the Sabre City, Roseville CA FJ-2:



Any leads most welcome!

[KarisaMalanoski]

I see there use to be pictures on here they are showing on my computer. Does anyone happen to have a photo of the fj-2 from sabre city they could share with me?

[ricusa]

Anyone know about the Fury that was displayed in Buffalo NY near the Sabers arena? Still there?

[Chris Brame]

I see there use to be pictures on here they are (not - ed.) showing on my computer. Does anyone happen to have a photo of the fj-2 from sabre city they could share with me?

This is from the archived Forgotten Jets page; the original had faded almost completely red so I did what I could to fix it:

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[Chris Brame]

More about the Sabre City FJ-2; just spotted it on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1983-Press-Pho ... 0062!US!-1

[ffuries]

Here's an FJ-3 from MCAS Beaufort I took pictures of some years ago. 135841 NA FJ-3 Fury painted in VMF-312 markings. I don't know what the differences are between a FJ-2 and FJ-3.

Attachments

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[ffuries]

According to wiki

Aircraft on display

FJ-2

BuNo 132023 – National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola, Florida.
BuNo 132057 – USS Hornet Museum, Alameda, California.

FJ-3

BuNo 135841 – Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina.
BuNo 135867 – Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California.
BuNo 135868 – Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York, New York.
BuNo 135883 – USS Midway Museum in San Diego, California.
BuNo 136032 – Middleton Field in Evergreen, Alabama.

FJ-3M

BuNo 141393 – Hickory Aviation Museum in Hickory, North Carolina.

[Andy Marden]

Also:

FJ-2 132028 at War Eagles Museum, Santa Teresa NM
FJ-3 136119 at McMinnville OR
FJ-3M 136008 at NAS Oceana VA
"135841" at MCAS Beaufort is actually FJ-3M 141376 in false marks.

Andy Marden
USAMOOS (2019 edition now out)

[quemerford]

Well I was trying to stick to FJ-2s: hence the thread title. So much appreciated Chris for the photo link.

Any more on -2s?? (the 'two' survivors are covered in detail in my original post).