Fagen Helldiver Progress

[Dan K]

Fuselage mated to center section on Monday.

https://www.facebook.com/39645248707766 ... 1040983420

[phil65]

I guess they were waiting for a snow storm...

Nice work…

Phil

[Dan K]

I guess they were waiting for a snow storm...

Nice work…

Phil

Storm didn't hit until today...just finished digging out about 8" of very wet slop.

[DH82EH]

Nice milestone!
Congrats to the whole team

[Pat Carry]

Good job!

[LysanderUK]

Great to see progress, looking forward to seeing another Helldiver airborne.

[bomberfan]

This is outstanding!! Sitting on her gear, she just looks more like an aircraft. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer now. I'm not sure what else they've got completed and ready to install, but I wonder how far behind Westpac they are now.

[JohnB]

Glad to see someone is making the effort...especially considering the work, the cost and the fact it's not exactly the most desirable (which is different from rare) warbird.

And it doesn't have the best reputation (which is different from its place in history or wartime record). I'm fact, I don't think I've read anything positive about its flying qualities.

When I was in Texas working as a TV reporter, one day I was at a small airstrip in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't doing a story on it (I don't recall why I was therer) but in the hangar next door was the CAF SB2C. It was great to spend some quality time with it. A huge aircraft.

[Mike]

Did the Navy ever get around to starting the restoration on theirs, or it it still sitting fizzing away quietly on the ramp at Pensacola?

[JohnTerrell]

Not sure about that one, Mike - the last photos I saw of it, it was still outside back in 2017. The one that had been at the USAF Museum (restored by Mike Rawson, but unfinished and cut-up by the USAFM) was delivered to Pensacola back in February.

[Randy Wilson]

Glad to see someone is making the effort...especially considering the work, the cost and the fact it's not exactly the most desirable (which is different from rare) warbird.

And it doesn't have the best reputation (which is different from its place in history or wartime record). I'm fact, I don't think I've read anything positive about its flying qualities.

When I was in Texas working as a TV reporter, one day I was at a small airstrip in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't doing a story on it (I don't recall why I was therer) but in the hangar next door was the CAF SB2C. It was great to spend some quality time with it. A huge aircraft.

You were most likely in Graham, TX, where the CAF SB2C was based for many years. I flew the Helldiver for several years and had to drive from Midland to Graham (a little less than 3 hours each way, on a good day) and back again after whatever mission we were on. One time I was offered a ride in a private aircraft to Graham - "you don't mind a one-eyed pilot do you?" A story for another day. It was a big aircraft and earned its name "The Beast" only a couple of times with me. Fortunately it was well maintained just up the road in Breckenridge by Nelson Ezell's staff. Just FYI.

Randy

[kalamazookid]

Did the Navy ever get around to starting the restoration on theirs, or it it still sitting fizzing away quietly on the ramp at Pensacola?

I think that one is supposed to go to Kalamazoo for restoration when the FM-2 or SBD being restored there are completed.

[Fouga23]

but unfinished and cut-up by the USAFM)

[JohnB]

You were most likely in Graham, TX, where the CAF SB2C was based for many years.

Randy

Could be, although looking at the map, Graham was almost outside our normal news area.

In the adjacent hangar was a T-6 getting ready for Reno...it was a purplish color and had a matching painted propeller (This was 2003-4..anyone know it?)

An old guy was changing the sparkplugs..he said he was a volunteer helping the owner get it ready for the races.
I asked why he did it...he replied in a matter of fact West Texas kind of way...
"Well, it beats hanging out in titty bars".

To this day, that's an oft-used explanation around my house.

I still have a CAF (then the Confederate Air Force) flyer I was given on the Helldiver.