Fornoff Bearcat(s) questions

[marine air]

There was an article in the 1970's in I think Air Progress that had the Fornoff's Bearcats and Mustang in the bronze and brown scheme. The wind shear and heavy g-loading is what is supposed to have pulled the wing apart from the airplane. there have been a couple of other instances where the Wing has come off a Bearcat.
There were some folks that felt the wing was slightly underdesigned on the Bearcat, and in some instances a spar strap has been added(like on a Beech 18). I asked H.P. about this in the mid 1980's and he was of the opinion that they didn't need any strap. His XF-8F-1 didn't have one then. I remember seeing another one that did, maybe Kalamazoo's when it was still flying. Don't know what the conventional wisdom is on spar straps for Bearcats are, today.
Charles "Chub" Smith and Harold "Bubba" Beal of Knoxville, Tennessee had matching F8f-2's and also did airshows in them. The Bearcats were painted Royal blue with Red Ripper's squadron markings, IIRC. "Chub" was on his way to south FLorida and tried to punch through a T-storm at 18,000.' Originally it was thought the wing came off as it had no wing spar strap. Further analysis revealed a lightning strike had hit the oxygen tank and the aircraft impacted the terrain at something like 500 mph.
"Bubba's Bearcat ended up in Europe and their Tigercat went to Kalamazoo. At one time they also had a Mustang, Buchon, T-28A, and maybe a third Bearcat. IIRC.

[BigGrey]

"Bubba's Bearcat ended up in Europe and their Tigercat went to Kalamazoo. At one time they also had a Mustang, Buchon, T-28A, and maybe a third Bearcat. IIRC.

If I remember correctly, Bubba had a problem landing the Buchon at Reno which resulted in collapsed landing gear. He was reportedly so disgusted with the plane that he gave it to POF on the spot.
Is that a true story?

Les

[warbird1]

"Bubba's Bearcat ended up in Europe and their Tigercat went to Kalamazoo. At one time they also had a Mustang, Buchon, T-28A, and maybe a third Bearcat. IIRC.

If I remember correctly, Bubba had a problem landing the Buchon at Reno which resulted in collapsed landing gear. He was reportedly so disgusted with the plane that he gave it to POF on the spot.
Is that a true story?

Les

I've heard this same version several times, from several people, but I can't vouch for it's authenticity.

[T J Johansen]

Charles "Chub" Smith and Harold "Bubba" Beal of Knoxville, Tennessee had matching F8f-2's and also did airshows in them. The Bearcats were painted Royal blue with Red Ripper's squadron markings, IIRC. "Chub" was on his way to south FLorida and tried to punch through a T-storm at 18,000.' Originally it was thought the wing came off as it had no wing spar strap. Further analysis revealed a lightning strike had hit the oxygen tank and the aircraft impacted the terrain at something like 500 mph.
"Bubba's Bearcat ended up in Europe and their Tigercat went to Kalamazoo. At one time they also had a Mustang, Buchon, T-28A, and maybe a third Bearcat. IIRC.

Beal/ Smith actually cornered the market and had five Bearcats during the 70s. N200N, N700F, N700H, N800H, and N9885C. The ones in "Red Rippers" colors were N700H and N9885C. Apart from these two (N700H was sold to Stephen Grey, and N9885C crashed killing Smith) three went to Don & Bill Whittington. While visiting World Jet in Florida many moons ago I stumbled upon a wooden pallet with two damaged Bearcat wings on it behind a hangar. One came off of Fornof's N7700C, while the other was from Smith's N9885C.

T J

[STEARMAN]

A little off topic, but with the talk above highlighting spar straps, does Rare Bear have a standard wing, or is it beefed up to handle the rough air at race speeds?

Greg

[gilt]

There were two G-58A's, the first one was built for Al Williams and flew as the Gulfhawk IV until lost in an accident, the second one was built specifically for Roger Wolke Kahns use, it has been reported that he bought the plane personally. It was sold to Calspan in 1960 where it was used for R & D.

RWK was an unusual individual, we in the Grumman and Gulfstream worlds owe him a huge debt of gratitude for establishing the excellent system of Tech Reps that continues to this day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Wolfe_Kahn

Tom-

[airnutz]

The actual color was "Cadillac Bronze".

Hi John..can you share how you came by this info? Just curious...

Edit..
Oh yeah... The name is Fornof...

[Chris Brame]

Having looked at some online paint charts from the Auto Color Library, I see Cadillac offered the following:

1962 - Bronze
1965 - Samoan Bronze
1967 - Olympic Bronze (Eldorado only)

You would have to be holding the chart in front of you to make an educated guess which was correct - the colors look different on a monitor.

[airnutz]

Having looked at some online paint charts from the Auto Color Library, I see Cadillac offered the following:

1962 - Bronze
1965 - Samoan Bronze
1967 - Olympic Bronze (Eldorado only)

You would have to be holding the chart in front of you to make an educated guess which was correct - the colors look different on a monitor.

Does anyone know what product line J.W. Fornof Motor Company frontlined in their sales?

[Warbirdnerd]

I found this old shot.
Here is Steve Hinton bringing the Bearcat back home to FCM after a winter in Chino. I was on the side of not painting this bird in USN colors...

[D Fisher]

Heres a scan of N7700C from my collection.

Doug

[Swiss Mustangs]

some images from my collection













Martin

[Dudley Henriques]

some images from my collection













Martin

These photographs (with the exception of the two color photos) are from my personal collection and the collection of the International Fighter Pilots Fellowship and are available to anyone wishing to access them.
Simply Google IFPF History, and save the images to your desktop.

[Swiss Mustangs]

Dudley

thank you for pointing out the proper source of the photos I posted. PM sent.

Cordially
martin

[Dudley Henriques]

Dudley

thank you for pointing out the proper source of the photos I posted. PM sent.

Cordially
martin

You're welcome. PM answered.
My best wishes to you.