Allied Fighters acquires F6F Hellcat

Pat Carry · **Posted:** Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:52 am

I dont think this has been posted here already but then again I cant remember what happened 2 days ago. Allied Fighters has acquired Willard Compton's Grumman F6F Hellcat BuNo 08825. This plane suffered damage in a crash landing in 1977 and apparently has been in storage since. Nice to hear another Hellcat will take to the skies one day.

kalamazookid · **Posted:** Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:19 pm

Is Allied Fighters the organization that Jack Croul is the driving force behind?

Pat Carry · **Posted:** Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:34 pm

kalamazookid wrote:

Is Allied Fighters the organization that Jack Croul is the driving force behind?

Yes. Allied Fighters also has 2 P-51 Mustangs, a P-38 Lightning and the P-47 "Dottie Mae" which was recovered from a lake in Austria a few years back.

cooper9411 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:14 pm

Just checked out their web site, neat. :drink3:

Iclo · **Posted:** Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:47 pm

Their P-38 was at Edwards few weeks ago for a public presentation of the F-35. There are pictures on this post of the french forum "Pegase.tv": http://forum.pegase.tv/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5705

Lightning · **Joined:** Fri Nov 05, 2004 7:06 pm **Posts:** 424

Howdy All

Jack Cook posted pics of this F6F Hellcat wreck sometime back

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=37005&hilit=F6F+Hellcat

Lightning

Mike · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:54 am **Posts:** 3333

So Jack's been in and deleted all the pictures this evening.

Dan K · **Posted:** Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:11 pm

Mike wrote:

So Jack's been in and deleted all the pictures this evening.

Thankfully Bill Compton let others take pics of the remains over the years.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3468&hilit=bill+compton&start=30

Pat Carry · **Posted:** Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:22 pm

Mike wrote:

So Jack's been in and deleted all the pictures this evening.

What exactly happened with Jack that he is not here anymore?

Dan Jones · **Posted:** Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:42 pm

A few people have quit the board over the years for various reasons, but Jack's contributions are certainly missed.

Was Mr Compton a former Navy F6F pilot? Something, somewhere in the back of my head makes me think he was. Sure glad he had the foresight and the drive to preserve the remains, and from what I remember of Jack's pictures of the airplane, Mr Compton was/is a master scrounger! On a slightly different note, does anyone know what remained of the POF F6F after the accident, and in consideration of the circumstances of it's loss, is there any interest in rebuilding it? The world needs more Hellcats.

Dan

Dan K · **Posted:** Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:35 pm

Dan Jones wrote:

Was Mr Compton a former Navy F6F pilot?

Dan

It's been posted that Mr. Compton drove B-25s stateside.

C VEICH · **Joined:** Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:40 pm **Posts:** 1471

Dan Jones wrote:

The world needs more Hellcats.

I could not agree more Dan.

Other than those of Paul Allen and Kermit Weeks are there any other project Hellcats out there?

JohnH · **Posted:** Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:15 pm

Totally cool and it's about time. If I recall correctly this is the oldest Hellcat in existence or close to it.

Dan Jones · **Posted:** Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:13 pm

There's the one that got fished out of the Atlantic some years back, now at the Quonset Air Museum. It's being restored to airworthy (?) I think.

corsairboss · **Posted:** Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:00 am

The POF F6F was total loss. Not much remained of the aircraft, a little of each wing and some of the tail section. The cockpit and center section forward was total loss. The engine remained in Tennessee. Art Vance was a great pilot an good friend..!!!

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