recovering aircraft from ..... Africa

[BennoT6]

Hi,

Anyone out there having ever recovered aircraft from (Northern) Africa ? I remember T-28s and C-47s from Morocco but that was long ago. Furthermore there are these Chad and Gabon AD-4s from Central Africa which went to France in the 80s and 90s. And not to forget the T-6Gs, again in the 90s, from Tunisia, also going to France.

All help and advice in this most welcome.

Regards,

Benno

[RMAllnutt]

Quite a number of interesting aircraft came of out Etheopia and Eritrea if I am remembering the place correctly. About 5 or 6 Fairey Fireflies, some Saab B-17's, and a bundle of F-86's if memory serves me correctly. I also saw in a recent magazine article that there are still believed to be one or two more Fireflies remaining there. Don't forget all of the Egyptian Yak-11's (40 or 50), and a couple of Moroccan Sea Furies. I'm sure there have been more.

Cheers,
Richard

[RickH]

The Morrocans had 4 OV-10As. The story was that the South Africans were going to buy them. Apparently there was some kind of flap over that, the sale was blocked, and the aircraft disappeared from radar.( no pun intended ) They had not flown in years.

[T J Johansen]

And not to forget the T-6Gs, again in the 90s, from Tunisia, also going to France.

Were these ex-French G models, or what is their story? And as late as the 90's. When were they withdrawn from service?

T J

[BennoT6]

Those Tunisian T-6Gs were not in flying condition; they probably served until the 70s or 80s. One went to Poland and is on display in the Krakow museum, and a few others were restored to flying condition in France. They were imported by Mr. Didier Chable (http://francewarbirds.free.fr/ampaa.html ), who owns a nice collection of warbirds, including Skyraiders and Avengers to mention some.

The Air Forces of the former French colonies (Tunisia, Morocco) received ex FAF and ex FN Texans.

[TimAPNY]

Lets hope a B-24D comes out soon. Or at least I hope it comes out soon.

Tim

[O.P.]

There was an outfit advertising on barnstormers awhile back. They retrieved 6 or 9 or so T28A's from Ethiopia recently. They were out of South Africa and were restoring them for sale as either A's or Fennec's. They had one almost completed. What was cool about the restored plane is that they had the original two bladed prop on it. I lost the website. I went looking for it again but couldn't find it. If someone has it, please post it here. I am very interested in their progress.

The other ones that interested me were the Skyraiders listed in the registry that were apparently lost in a sandstorm on a ferry flight. I might have that wrong but it's somewhere close. Chad or Gabon or somewhere like that.

OT: speaking of South Africa, isn't there some cool South African built STOL and Jet aircraft and Helicopters that could be coming out of service some time in the future? I swear I saw a STOL airplane in a SOF magazine when I was a kid.

[Cvairwerks]

Probably thinking of the Bosbok. GSIO-480 powered STOL bird with a tremendous weight carrying capacity. There are a couple of them here in the US. Think of a C-185 on steroids with sticks for controls......

[Mikael O]

Two SAAB 17 where recovered in Ethiopia, one hulk is still left there. It seem to be in pretty good shape and would be restorable if you had the money and time.
/Mike

[Rob Mears]

I'd love to know where the Morroccan OV-10's ended up if anyone has a line on them.

[RickH]

Rob, I'm not sure that they have gone anywhere.