AJ-1 Savage

[airnutz]

Was looking for some info on the HUP& others at Quartzite Arizona and
in J Baughers site saw 2 Savage mentioned as fire bombers.
BuNo 124158 converted to firebomber scrapped 68/69

BuNo 124167 converted to firebomber crashed Sep. 67

Wish Ron Olsen had some pics of those birds!

[John Kerr]

Two AJ-1's were used for Forest Fire Fighting. They were N9142Z, 124158
and N9143Z, 124167. N9143Z was scrapped arround 1969 and N9142Z crashed in September 1967.

Fire Bomber #s assigned to the tankers were # 88 for N9142Z and # 77 for N9143Z.

The AJ-2 at Pensacola is ex N68677, 130418.

FYI a few photos of N9142Z can be found at:

http://www.scalefirebombers.com/index2.html

Cheers, John R. Kerr

[/quote]

[tom d. friedman]

not a real popular bird from the beauty point of view, but i always thought she had nice lines. best, tom

[Chad Veich]

Was looking for some info on the HUP& others at Quartzite Arizona

Airnutz, what did you find out about this? I've driven by many times but have never been able to stop and look around at the various airframes. Seems like some of the stuff has disappeared in the last few years.

[tom d. friedman]

hellcat & tigercat drone wreckage still their to this day.... wow that's pretty weird but cool, figured the naval aviation museum would have posted armed guards or surface to air missile batteries around it at taxpayer expense to keep the buzzards from crapping on official u.s. navy inventory scrap metal!! best, tom

[airnutz]

Chad, I haven't found anything much about the Quartzite relics. From what
I remember, there were a coupla HUP's, a Beech Expediter sans outer
wing panels, a dead Allison with a huge hole in the block on the ground.

What caught my eye was the most complete ex-military item there..which
was an orange Snark or Snark replica mounted upon a trailer which
mimicked the launch trailer I remembered from the old Revell or Aurora
plastic kits. I say Replica, because the Snark appeared to be too small in
scale from what I see in the period photos. When at Pima the next day
I was talking to some elder docents in the Aerospace building and I
mentioned the Quartzite Snark. They hadn't ever heard of it..I suggested
it would make a nice display to their section. Wonder if that is still there?
I have also heard a storyof a replica Snark being fabricated by the
mechanics at Hensley/NAS Dallas and have wondered if somehow it found
it's way to Quartzite? It was built in the early 60's.

I recently "found" my unexposed photos from that trip which I'm having
developed..so I'll follow up with anything I forgot to mention.

What originally got me thinking again aboutthe Quartzite stuff, was Ryan
Keough's threadon Aviation-themed restaurants. I forgot to mention that
these relics are scattered about the remains of a typical Arizona desert
gravel landing strip..in fact there was a Tri-Pacer tied down in a quonset
type shelter, but it didn't loo like it flown in some time. On this strip was
also a restaurant contructedof desert rock..a nice rock garden..an old
alum prop. Looking through the windows I could see old photos on the
walls etc. and the place looked to be in good condition. I've sent some
e-mails to folks in the area to see if this is one of the places that comes
back to life with the winter incursion of the "snowbirds" or it's a dead.
When there, it was about 105 degrees on a Sunday..we were late running
so I didn't get to talk to any locals..if I coulda found them. I wish now
that I would've taken the time to knock on some doors and write down
some serial #'s. Chad, if you could set aside some time on your next trip
by there I would be really interested in getting an update on the place!

[Chad Veich]

Thanks for the info Airnutz, I will certainly try and make time to stop next time I pass through. However, that's not very often, usually on my way to Chino for the airshow. (I'm in the Phoenix area) I did not go to the Chino show this year but I seem to recall that the Snark was still on its perch when I went in 2004. In addition to the relics you mentioned I seem to recall a Grumman Cougar at the location. Am I confused on this? About twice a year Quartzite is inundatd with RV'ers for some kind of huge swapmeet, rock hounds I think. For about a mile approaching the town until about a mile after it there doesn't seem like there is two square feet of desert that does not have an RV parked on it. It's an absolutely amazing transformation for such a little hole in the road town. I'll be the little restaraunt makes enough profit during those gatherings that it doesn't have to be open the rest of the year! Regards, Chad Veich.

[airnutz]

Chad, I still haven't located my photos, and the processing fees are adding
up. I didn't remember seeing a jet, but recently found out that it was
a Grumman F9F-5P, 1 of only 36 made, I believe. It was just returned to
him by the Navy who had tried to keep it. The owner had to get lawyers,
press, a website dedicated to exposing the Navy's antics, and Congress to
get the Panther back....and the Navy had to pay the $20k lawyer
re-imbursment!!

This is the same photo-recon Panther #123517 which was a "guest" at the
USS Hornet museum...Scott has a photo in the registry. It is part of a
W.A.S.P. museum there, more photos and a history of their Navy fight...
www.waspmuseum.com/pictures.htm

The basics of the seizure and recovery are here
www.waspmuseum.com/faq.htm

The Snark is a real one and also a rare photo-recon model..1 of 6 made
which was bought at a Yuma scrap-yard for scrap price, back in the day.
It was supposedly operated by the Marine Corps in tests between Yuma
and Ft. Huachuca. Which would be an interesting history in it's own
right, because I thought the Navy and AF were the only ones involved with
Snark. It has a bent fin and nose due to a "flight" it took from it's gantry
during high winds some years back.

The C-45, turned out to be an AT-11 with a D-18 nose on it..it still has
the gun-ring, bomb gear etc. and was said to be complete, contradicting
my memory. I had also forgotten they have a half-track and a D-18.
The restaurant and airstrip are not active.


Edit- It's not a Snark..it is about 1/2 the size of one resting on a tracked
vehicle. The owner is not able to lay hands on the paperwork in prep for
the display to being moved to the North side of the Hwy.