Saw this on another site, I to was wondering

[Stoney]

This is such a long shot but here it is...........

When i was a VSP Unit in Northern Virginia in late 60's on i remember a F8F Gruman Bearcat that was sitting outside with no wings on it in Loudoun County near Leesburg Virginia. It was at the Gruman building on Rt.# 28 near the airport and was is a level flight attitude meaning tail up and on a stand so it might have been used as a test fixture for something?????

Thats the end of the story........Just wondering if anyone remembers this now 1 million dollar + aircraft with it's beautiful P&W R2800 or what might have happened to it. Hope it was sold, restored and is now doing a slow roll over the country side somewhere.

[K5DH]

I have to wonder if the Bearcat was being used as a wind machine. That huge fan driven by that R2800 will generate some serious wind! Movie studios used a variety of WW2 airframes for that purpose.

A couple of years ago, a friend sent me a picture he had taken of a big 18 cylinder radial with a paddle-bladed prop being used as a wind machine by a company that manufactures large plate glass windows for office buildings. It may have come from a DC-6. The company is in Pennsylvania, as I recall.

[Warbirdnerd]

Both Bu121776 and Bu121707 were wind machines at Kaman Aircraft. Both were in store at Quantico in the late 60s. Could it have been one of those two?

[SaxMan]

There was one of those "indoor skydiving" places in the D.C. area that was using a motor and prop from a DC-3 to provide the "wind" for the lift. I don't know if it was the Wright or the P&W motor, though. This had to have been at least 20 to 25 years ago.

[Triplane102]

One Bearcat became the Blue Angeles Painted up one, & the other became the G-58 Gulf Hawk 4th now almost ready to be finish with the Hintons.