T-33 56-1669

[cooper9411]

Part 1, recovery and disassembly. On March 29th 2008 I started the project of disassembling this Lockheed T-33 that had been sitting in the weeds adjacent from the O'Neal airport Lawrenceville County Illinois. The following day Sunday March 30th the aircraft was re-assembled. There is more to the story of how this came about but I won't bore anyone with it, unless you want to know then just ask. Hope everyone enjoys these pictures.

There had been steady rain for a few days just prior to this.


Finally got it out of the standing water 2 ft. deep and the sloppy deep mud

And so after one of the jackes blew a seal and a few other mis-communications (not on my part) it was dark. Yep thats me on the wing

Last edited by cooper9411 on Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[cooper9411]

Part 2






And once again rain showed up

[cooper9411]

Part 3 at the museum and reassembly





















Just thought I'd throw in this picture of the museums Beechcraft C-45

[cooper9411]

The bales of hay were only supposed to be for the fuselage/wing section to rest on for the move. Well after the seal blew on one of the jacks I had to improvise and it worked rather well considering.........


The original finish was polished but the museum decide to help against corrosion to paint it white with original markings. The museum has updated pictures on their website. Indiana military museum

[marine air]

Excellent job getting the T-Bird moved in one piece. Brilliant way to improvise with the hay bales.

[SaxMan]

Always good to see one saved from rotting away. I can definitely "feel your pain" putting the wings back on! Nice work.

[XL446]

Hi Cooper9411 (and other volunteers at the Indiana Military Museum),

Don't want to hi-jack this thread, but since you threw in a photo of that Beech 18 / C-45 / SNB yourself: I don't think that has ever been positively identified (at least I have never found its c/n or s/n or previous ID anywhere). The only thing I've found is that it's ex USN, but now I notice this photo on the museum's website:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 3032_n.jpg
Unfortunately it doesn't show a tail number (if it still had any at that time), but you wouldn't happen to have a better photo? Or remember its last tail number? Or know the whereabouts of its data plate? I tried to find it when I visited the museum in early August 2011, but to no avail.

Enjoyed my visit, by the way (dropped in specifically for the C-47 that had been mentioned on WIX by flroales) and suppose I will have to stop by again when the A-26 is done!

Roger

[cooper9411]

Hi Cooper9411 (and other volunteers at the Indiana Military Museum),

Don't want to hi-jack this thread, but since you threw in a photo of that Beech 18 / C-45 / SNB yourself: I don't think that has ever been positively identified (at least I have never found its c/n or s/n or previous ID anywhere). The only thing I've found is that it's ex USN, but now I notice this photo on the museum's website:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 3032_n.jpg
Unfortunately it doesn't show a tail number (if it still had any at that time), but you wouldn't happen to have a better photo? Or remember its last tail number? Or know the whereabouts of its data plate? I tried to find it when I visited the museum in early August 2011, but to no avail.

Enjoyed my visit, by the way (dropped in specifically for the C-47 that had been mentioned on WIX by flroales) and suppose I will have to stop by again when the A-26 is done!

Roger

Sorry that is the only picture I have of the Beech. All I know about it is that when the museum got it, portions of the wings were cut off for transport and then welded back on (thats what was told to me by museum personnel). The A-26 is back together and standing on it's own legs at the new location of the museum which is right near the center of town (due to budget the A-26 was reassembled by museum personnel/volunteers). I did receive a letter from the museum a couple of months ago and with the letter was a picture of the A-26. I hope to have the pictures of the disassembly and transport on here soon. When you were there was the F-4 there?

[XL446]

Thx for your reply.
No, when I was there (early August 2011) the F-4 hadn't arrived yet. The new location only had the C-47 then (still in civilian colours), the old location had the C-45, the T-33 that is the subject of this thread, a Huey, the fuselage of a T-33 and a C-47 cockpit.
I have to be in St Louis and in SE Indiana at the end of May and will try to stop off at the museum in between the two.

[cooper9411]

If you get the chance to stop in, try and get some new pictures of the F-4 and of the A-26. Thanks