Warbird Information Exchange

I was going through some photos left to me from the estate of an old friend Capt. Ed Buerckholtz. Ed was the poor guy who had to sit the back seat of my father's SNJ-5 and check me out in it. He was a retired Ozark/TWA pilot who was active in the local warbird community for many years. Ed was good friends with some of the guys at the local Missouri Air Guard unit and often got invited on tours associated with the group. I found these photos of his trip down to the range at Ft. Leonard Wood. They were probably taken in the mid 1980s. I wonder what became of the "targets"?



Here they come!


Gun pass


Another gun pass


Target inventory


F-86D target


F-84 MiG targets

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Cool shots...
But those "MIG" F-84 look a lot like FJ Furys to me.

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

Wow, I missed that. I think you are correct. My bad!

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Neat photos, thanks for posting them even though it's a bummer to see not 1 but 2 rare Furys being used as range targets...

-Derek

note the f-100 super sabre forward fuselage on the ground next to 2 hueys!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Is that a Connie fuselage in the left b/g?

great pics! sad though...

greg v.

Interesting pictures. The T-33 in the backround "may" be 53-5105 ex QT-33 BU 156157 which survived training, aerial target and for a time ground target use. I have the flight manual from this plane, and found her trail ended there...

The Furies are FJ-3 models and are three of the 149 built. I believe there are 10 survivors of this superlative looking plane, although it was not "perfect" in service. I had never heard of this range until the QT-33 search of mine started. Interesting to finally see the pictures of the place...looking at the photo close there are three there, another vertical in the middle of the fuselage of the first one

The F-86D is either 52-3638 or 53-638...if the photo shows the number better that would tie that up...

And no thats just the F-86 behind the trees..no Connie

i knew something was their, but didn't spot the connie lines!! pretty well camo'd..... i had to look close!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

I was busy looking at the M-151s. See alot of split windshields (A1 models, I presume). Didn't think those hung around past the mid-70's.

Yep, they were around doing EXACTLY what you see in that pic. Right up unil they got replaced by the A2,s in the mid 80's. Yes on the A1's.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

I remember going to a public auction viewing at Ft. Leonard Wood back in 1992. Nearly everything I wanted to look at had been withdrawn by a state surplus property division somewhere in the country. That's the day I decided to start the process of getting our museum enrolled in the surplus property program here in Missouri. It's a great program for non-profits and its available in most states. Anyway, on that same trip I recall seeing a fenced parking lot with a bunch of M-151s lined up like a giant used car lot. If I guessed there were 100 on the lot I would probably not be far off. I learned from the auction folks that every one of them was to be smashed and chopped up. Crazy.

Here's a couple of shots of the F-86D and Fury cockpits. Note the T-Bone in the background.

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Yes, the M151 had a independent rear suspension which made them easy to roll over. Though some made it out UNCUT, most that you see today that exist have been either cut in 1/2 or quartered and rewelded back together. I have 2 and both have been rewelded.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

Just before Halloween, a thread from the dead.
Two weeks ago I visited Jim England, a retired air traffic controller at Barkley Airport in Paducah, KY. Mostly we discussed the B-17 that was displayed there for the Boy Scouts in 1946, but he also showed me photos of an F-86 taken in 1979 as it was being moved by a Skycrane helicopter. They made an unscheduled landing at Barkley to adjust the lifting straps when the plane started flying itself and affecting the helicopter's performance. I got a couple poor photos of the photos (wish I had a scanner); it looks like the plane was F-86D 52-3638 and it was being moved from (IIRC) the closed military museum in Louisville to end up as a target at Fort Leonard Wood.







Odd that the 638 on the tail was apparently repainted black.
Much earlier shot of '638 at the so-called museum in Louisville:

https://www.key.aero/sites/default/file ... 000004.jpg

I'm wondering if, after this place closed in the early '70s, the plane got a camo paint job and might have been displayed in a park or playground? Over to the experts...

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

The Furies are FJ-4 or 4B. Can't quite make out if they have the lower dive brake of the -4B.

The F-86D was indeed 52-3638: transferred from 173rd FIS Nebraska ANG to 165th TRS KY ANG on 3 September 1959 (probably its final flight date prior to the hop under the Tarhe); and then donated on 13 October 1959 to Louisville, Kentucky for display.

Wow. Have not actually logged onto WIX for a long time and just did to look for an old -5 Corsair thread. Just saw those photos. I guess that’s the fate of some museum and static display stuff, they wind up as scrap or as targets. Darn shame. I’m pretty sure that’s the same jet.

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"