P-80 on a stick

Invader26 · **Joined:** Wed Aug 11, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 843

Jim Ricketts of Aero Nostalgia, Stockton, Ca did a T-33 to P-80 conversion for a USAF exchange deal in the early 1980's...

Speeddemon651 · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:03 pm **Posts:** 235

This T-33 still sits in front of a VFW in Pocomoke City, MD. (bottom of the page)

http://www.warbirdsandairshows.com/mary ... guards.htm

A-4F still sitting at Accomack county airport:
http://swag-trip-logs.blogspot.com/2013 ... sbury.html

SaxMan · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 3:55 pm

The Pocomoke City T-33 spent many years as a gate guard at Montgomery Airpark in Gaithersburg, MD (GAI) before being trucked off to Pocomoke City. It was pretty rough when in was at GAI...and that was 20 years ago. It's probably in worse shape now.

We're seeing a lot of hardware that was acquired by VFWs, American Legions, etc. in the area falling into disrepair as their membership falls off, or they lack the funding and/or interest to maintain the items. I'm sure this is probably the case nationwide, too. So far, though, I have yet to hear of a group in our area that has successfully "liberated" such hardware from these organizations so that they can be properly restored, maintained and displayed.

p51 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 5:25 pm

There were two T-33s sitting at the A&P school at the Tallahassee, Florida airport. I got a good look at them in 1988 while going through art school (the A&P school was under the same overall umbrella and I was using the planes for a movie project that I never finished). One was gutted but the other was complete (with full instrumentation and working control surfaces), I often wonder whatever happened to them...

sandiego89 · **Joined:** Mon May 21, 2012 12:28 pm **Posts:** 1201

SaxMan wrote:

The Pocomoke City T-33 spent many years as a gate guard at Montgomery Airpark in Gaithersburg, MD (GAI) before being trucked off to Pocomoke City. It was pretty rough when in was at GAI...and that was 20 years ago. It's probably in worse shape now.

I was up and close with the Pokomoke T-33 a few months ago, and she is not that bad. A bit of oxidation, some canopy crazing, faded markings, tires a bit rough. Looked complete- no panels missing, no obvious damage. Really no worse than many aircraft on outside display.

The A-4 at Accomack that speeddemon mentions is pretty ratty looking, at least paint wise. Very faded, peeling...

SaxMan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:14 pm

That is good news about the Pocomoke City T-33...it means someone is looking after the plane, at least to some degree.

Mike · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:54 am **Posts:** 3331

There's an F-80 on a stick on the gate at Merced Airport, California.

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Wed Mar 11, 2015 3:03 pm

There is a P-80 on a pole here at EAA. She is pretty much a shell.

Tailspin Turtle · **Joined:** Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:11 am **Posts:** 103

sandiego89 wrote:

I think a T-33 conversion would be a viable project for the P/F-80 clone. IIRC correctly the process of designing the T-33 involved inserting a 24 inch plug in the cockpit area of a P-80 fuselage, and the plug is a constant diameter plug, so in theory you could tap out rivets, remove the plug, and reattach the forward fuselage, getting you back down to F/P-80 fuselage length. I believe there is a also a rear plug that could likely be left alone- "close enough" for a clone. New canopy, revise the wing tips, and you are pretty close to a P/F-80.

Correct: The T-33 has a 26.6" plug forward of the wing and 12" aft. The P-80 on static display at the Hill Aerospace Museum in Utah is actually a T-33 with a P-80 forward fuselage. The aft plug was not removed. It's hard to tell although it certainly would require ballast in the nose to compensate if it was to be flown.

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P-80 on a stick

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