Obscure Airframes

[Aircraft Mech Paul]

Hi All,

with the more recent post about the Martin Bombers (Maryland and Baltimore) I was wondering what types of rather obscure airframes are out there at present. I welcome discussion on this, as we all seem to becomes tantalized at the prospect of a P-51 rumor of one being "found" in a barn somewhere...or the odd rumor of an FW-190 sitting in tact at the bottom of some Norwegian lake or fjord.

But I would pose the question to any and all who would care to delve in to the subject. Airframes that while not entirely popular or long lived, still represent a level of technological advancement for their time. Airframes such at the O-52 Owl, the Brewster Buccaneer, airframes such as these are rare indeed because, for the way I see it, they were not all that popular with the branch of service they were assigned and built for, another springs to mind of the Vultee Vengeance which is in Australia, supposedly the only one of her breed known to exist.

I am just opening this topic for discussion....because while we have lost a considerable amount of airframes and the great men who flew them in combat, do we not owe a similar debt of gratitude to the men and women who gave us the prototypes and competition aircraft that helped bring the better aircraft we had for victory in the air during the time of Korea and of course..World War 2 ???

Just food for thought...and I would welcome sincere discussion on this.

Respectfully,

Paul

[Jack Cook]

JCW has the only Spartan NP-1 Navy Primary trainer left. He restored it about 15 years ago and flies it periodicly from his grass strip. The Navy offered him a stripped out fuselage hulk of a Fokker F-27 has a straight trade a couple years ago. His reply to them is not printable.

[Dan K]

Ah, a topic near and dear to my heart!

A few of my favorites would be:

The XF15C-1 at the Quonset Air Museum (static)

The BTD-1 now at Wings of Eagles (under restoration to static)

The two XJL-1's that have managed to survive--one displayed at Pima, and the other (under rebuild to fly?) located in southern California.

Of course, rumors still abound about some goof in Wisconsin working on a TBY-2 mock-up--sounds like a pipe dream though.

[Randy Haskin]

JCW has the only Spartan NP-1 Navy Primary trainer left. He restored it about 15 years ago and flies it periodicly from his grass strip. The Navy offered him a stripped out fuselage hulk of a Fokker F-27 has a straight trade a couple years ago. His reply to them is not printable.

I have always been aware that the Navy was stupid, but I had no idea....

[C170BDan]

This topic is a great one... most the ones I think of are vintage airplanes built before the war.... like the NP-1. Like a Student Prince, Franklin Sport biplane, Boeing 40 and many more... ( we could spend all day listing the types from http://www.aerofiles.com ) but if we are talking Warbirds then the NASM is the shopping cart for rare aircraft. Mainly their collection of German and Japanese aircraft.

What would be cool to see fly into a show today? The forementioned O52 Owl, a P35, a P40B, FW190 and since you mentioned prototypes then wow the list just gets huge. To mention bombers there are rare types that we dont see that we NEED on the airshow scene to honor those crews... B23, Martin B26, A20.

Will we see these types return to the skies and will we see them at airshows. I believe so... The future is bright for vintage and warbird aircraft restorations.

[TimAPNY]

JCW has the only Spartan NP-1 Navy Primary trainer left. He restored it about 15 years ago and flies it periodicly from his grass strip. The Navy offered him a stripped out fuselage hulk of a Fokker F-27 has a straight trade a couple years ago. His reply to them is not printable.

I have always been aware that the Navy was stupid, but I had no idea....

the F-27 being the jump ship for the "Golden Knights"? I really hope I missing something here or after spending 4 years in the Navy, that would even surprise me.

[Tulio]

"the F-27 being the jump ship for the "Golden Knights"?"

But the Golden Knights are Army, right?

Golden Frogs?? SEALs?

Saludos,


Tulio

[TimAPNY]

"the F-27 being the jump ship for the "Golden Knights"?"

But the Golden Knights are Army, right?

Golden Frogs?? SEALs?

Saludos,


Tulio

Yes,the Golden Knights are Army. But that is the only F-27 I know of being used so I referenced them instead of a Navy jump team.

Tim

[Eric Friedebach]

Leap Frogs.

Not sure if they have their own plane now; we gave them a lift when the 130 they were going to jump out of got called up for Desert Shield (they loved jumping out of an old bird!).

[Dan K]

another springs to mind of the Vultee Vengeance which is in Australia, supposedly the only one of her breed known to exist.

I thought for sure that at least three substantial remains existed: the example at Camden Air Museum and two major portions of Vengeance being rebuilt at Precision.

I could tell you about even more, but then I'd have to... you know the rest.

[RickH]

How about the Vultee P-66 ?

[Stoney]

The last I heard of the P-66 was they were buried in china to keep them from the commies. Probably dust by now.

[O.P.]

SC2 Seahawk

I guess this post will count as my yearly "Does anyone know where an SC2 Is" post.

The last SC2 fun we had was the Joe Genne pictures, (Thanks Rob Mears!), they were beautiful.

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... ight=genne

Who know's, I might get lucky. There's a lot of new posters here since my last one.


Help a brutha out. Help me find one.

[bdk]

The last I heard of the P-66 was they were buried in china to keep them from the commies.

Where in China?

[Wolverine]

Sole-Surviving American WWII Aircraft

I was making this list for my web page...here's the data I collected so far. Each one of these is the sole survivor AFAIK.

________________________________________________

Aeronca TG-5, Static Display Texas Air Museum-Caprock Chapter; Slaton, TX, USA

Beech AT-10“Wichita”, 42-35143, USAF Museum; ayton, OH, USA

Budd C-93/RB-1 “Conestoga,” BuNo. 39307, Pima Air & Space Museum; Tucson, AZ, USA XB-DUZ

Consolidated PB2Y-5R, BuNo. 69003, 7099 NMNA; Pensacola, FL, USA

Convair XC-99 43-52436 USAF Museum; Dayton, OH, USA

Curtiss-Wright XP-55 “Ascender” 42-78846 Kalamazoo Air Museum; Kalamazoo, MI, USA


OK THAT'S IT...I'VE GOT TO GO...and I feel lazy....so I didn't alter the formatting on this one. Yes...phpbb2 does not allow for the tab feature. Oh well. I'll edit the rest later.


Douglas 43-50224 S NASM; Washington, missing wings
XB-42 27224 D.C., USA
“Mixmaster”

Douglas 44-61509 S NASM; Washington, missing wings
XB-43 D.C., USA
“Versatile II”

Erco XPQ-13 41-25196 NS USA N37143

Fairchild AT-21 42-48053 AR Roanoke, TX, USA

Fisher P-75A 44-44553 UR USAF Museum;
“Eagle” Dayton, OH, USA

Fleetwings 39-719 S Walter Soplata;
XBT-12-FL Newbury, OH, USA
Basic Trainer

Kellett XO-60 42-13610 SD NASM; Washington,
Autogiro 118 D.C., USA

Kellett XR-8 43-44714 SD NASM; Washington,
D.C., USA

Lockheed 42-94549 SD Pima Aerospace N90831
C-69-1-LO 049-1970 Museum; Tucson,
AZ, USA

Northrop SD Western Museum flying wing
JB-1 “Bat” of Flight; USA missile

Northrop SD NASM; Washington, NX28311
N-1M D.C., USA

Northrop 004 FD Planes of Fame; N9MB
N-9MB Chino, CA, USA (that is the
actual N-
number)

Northrop 42-3853 S NASM; Washington,
XP-56 D.C., USA

Piper TG-6 42-58662 SD Pima Aerospace
Museum; Tucson,
AZ, USA

Platt-LePage 41-001 S NASM; Washington,
XR-1 D.C., USA

Vought SB2U-2 BuNo. 1383 SD NMNA; Pensacola,
“Vindicator/ FL, USA
Chesapeake”

Vought-Sikorsky BuNo. 002978 UR NASM; Washington,
V-173 “Flying D.C., USA
Pancake”