Pate Museum of Transportation

[Silverplate]

I was in Fort Worth over the past 10 days for the birth of our third grandchild, a baby girl. Very exciting. I did manage to visit the Pate Museum of Transportation. With the exception of one Pierce Arrow car everything is need of a great deal of attention.

[Second Air Force]

It's good to see the B-36 propellers are still on their stands behind the Banana--notice that those are early round tipped blades, very rare indeed!

[Connery]

Wow!! I thought all of the Museum's collection was sold off years ago. Are these still at the original museum location or was everything just moved to a new location? I remember going out there many times growing up. Back then, there was a trampoline for the kids to play on, but this one was in a hole in the ground so that the surface of the trampoline was level with the ground. Also the Serman tank was sitting nearby and you could play inside of it. When I got a little older and was restoring classic Mustangs, my dad and I would attend the annual Pate Museum Swap Meet.

[Ztex]

These aircraft are still at the same palce as they have been forever...They get a new coat of paint every 15 or 20 years whether they nneed them or not...
They still have an old wood mine sweeper and a deck gun and torpedo out side. They have an Apollo test capsule and a bunch of old cars inside..plus a working submarine parascope...
The swap meet moved to the Speedway a few years ago..the Air Force came and got a bunch of the airplanes. The place is a mere shadow of what it used to be. (and it was never really very nice IMHO)

Z

[Mark Nankivil]

The F-8 that was there was an A model that was converted to the prototype YF-8C. The Vought Heritage Group acquired this airframe and restored it to its former glory, now on display at the Frontiers of Flight Museum up at Love Field in Dallas.

As I recall, the F-105 on display was one of the Thunderstick II conversions - fairly rare nowadays....

Was the F9F-8 Cougar still there?

Enjoy the Day! Mark

[Ztex]

What Silverplate shows is what is there now...

There used to be an F86H there too...

[Silverplate]

Those were the only aircraft at the Museum during my visit last week. They had some interesting pictures of the C119 landing in what appeared to be field at that location during October 1970. There was also a large boat still there and about two dozen or more cars. Some rare cars but all in bad shape. Several NASA related items were located in the building.

[David_Aiken]

Howdy Y'All,
The late "Aggie" Pate was a car collector and his collection was made public and he added many items on loan from the various branches of the US military. I made acquaintance with "Chief" Carroll, retired USN, who was overseer of the place and thus I had somewhat free access to whatever I wanted -which was not much in the early 1970s.

I am saddened to hear of the decline. Perhaps the US military has asked for the return of their items? I recall a Jumo jet engine on loan from the USAF Museum...is that gone?
Cheers,
David

[Connery]

Was the Hound Dog missle still at the front gate or was it gone as well?

[Mark Nankivil]

Here's what I took photos of back in May of '02....

Enjoy the Day! Mark