Warbird Information Exchange

Greetings all,

In the late '70s I had the chance to visit NAS Miramar and sitting outside beside Base Ops was a pretty derelict looking F6F Hellcat. Is this the same airplane that was pulled up off the sea bottom and is now, or was at Pima a few years ago? At the time, as I recall, it was still painted in it's original wartime blue scheme, not all bleached out looking like the Pima Hellcat.

Thanks,
Dan

Thanks Rob - you haven't got the BuNo handy, do you?

BuNo 66237 I guess - just answered my own question, but thanks again for the help.

So that is the former Pima Hellcat. Wow - somebody deserves a pat on the back.

Thanks Rob.

Dan

Was this the Hellcat that was in some teen flick in the late 70s or 80s where a couple visit a boneyard? What movie was that? Typical, remember the plane, but not the movie.



Jim

In the movie "Can't Buy Me Love" a teen couple go on a "date" at AMARC...don't specifically recall any aircraft types, though.

Well according to my records the F6F on display at Miramar was: F6F-5N, Serial # 79669. I have it as being on display there from at least 1965 thru 1973. It was marked on the tail as 1158, had a white engine cowl, white and blue tail with the # 35 on it. It is not the one recovered from the ocean, then Pima, then USN museum. Cheers, John

As I recall, they look over a brick wall and there is AMARC...(anyone whose been there knows thaeraren't many brick walls) with a wide shot of DM with lots of military stuff stored, back then, all the B-52s were still there.
They climb over and find themselves in Pima Air Museum....it was probably easier to get permission to shoot there and most of the audience won't know the difference.

BTW: There was a TV movie in the 70-80s with Larry Hagman flying a helicopter around Arizona and he gets chased by bad guys in a helicopter so he lands in Pima, so the helicopter blends in with the other displays...I can't remember that films name. I believe they refer to the place as an aviation junk yard..or maybe a museum.

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The movie was called "Deadly Encounter". Hagman flew a Hughes 500. Seriously cool flick. Anybody got a copy they'd copy?

There's some really interesting pictures of this Hellcat at www.blackshadowaviation.com under "Our Restoration Services".

Dan

John - any idea where BuNo 79669 is now? When I saw it at Miramar, that would have been about 1977 - 1976 at the earliest. It was their until at least then, but as I recall it was in much better shape than the Hellcat that later showed up at Pima. I think I recall the white cowl ring, now that you mention it.

Dan

Aircraft could have well still been there in th 1976-1977 time period. I have one fairly poor, taken from the rear, of the aircraft on 8 August 1973. I believe a few years ago I read somewhere it was scrapped sometime in the late 1970's or early 1980's. Perhaps some other board members have additional information. Cheers, John

Could this be the A/C you are thinking of?

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/f6fregis ... 42874.html

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