Warbird Information Exchange

Does the NASM have the entire aircraft or just the nose section?

If I remember the story correctly, a regretful decision was made decades ago, to cut the nose section off and scrap the rest of the plane. I believe this happened when the NASM collection was temporarily housed in an old aircraft plant near Chicago. When the Korean War broke out, the plant was needed for refurbishing B-29's and the the aircraft collection had to find a home...quick. This was when Paul Garber secured the land in Maryland that became Silver Hill (later named the Paul Garber Restoration and Storage Facility).
I think the crew at the storage facility in Chicago took it upon themselves to cut the nose off of the Betty and ship it to Maryland. They junked the rest.

Please correct me if I've gotten any of this wrong.

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

I've heard the same thing. Additionally, "what would/could fit on a rail car was shipped to Silver Hill, what couldn't fit on a rail car was scrapped".

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45-47=-2

The tail cone also made it to NASM; I do not think this includes the stabilizers.

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Kevin McCartney

From the NASM website:

"The NASM G4M Model 34 BETTY is not complete but it is the best-preserved example of this famous aircraft in the world. Two major portions survive: the nose including the entire flight deck, and ten feet of the fuselage. The aircraft was probably based at Oppama Air Field near Yokosuka, Japan, but no record of the unit or service history is known. It was brought to the United States aboard a U. S. Navy aircraft carrier along with 145 other Japanese aircraft selected for test and evaluation. This BETTY was flight-tested as Foreign Equipment Test number T2-2205. Later, the airplane was dismembered with a cutting torch but when and precisely why are not known. Evidently, only the pieces that survive today arrived at the storage facility at Park Ridge, Illinois, during the late 1940s."

I was always under the impression that it was cut up for transport to Silver Hill with the majority of the aircraft being scrapped at that time. I thought there was a picture someplace of it complete in the Park Ridge factory...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

This webpage indicates that this is FE-2205. http://silverhawkauthor.com/aviation-ja ... r_408.html

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45-47=-2

But the nose section in the NASM collection appears to have the original paint, and the photographed complete aircraft has the paint removed. Could the NASM specimen be from a different aircraft?

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Kevin McCartney

Wondering if their are any updates. Wasn't the annual open house a month or two ago?

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Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

The Japanese seem to be far more sensitive than our German friends on the issue...despite Germany being seen by most of the world as the greater villain.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

I think this is largely relative to where you are in the world. Spend some time in Singapore, Malaysia or China and see who they think is regarded as the greater villain.