Warbird Information Exchange

On a side note, I was told the C-133, two F-105's, and C-47 are going to be scrapped at Chanute!

This absolutely disgusts me (especially the C-133).

Glad to hear the Constellation will be saved. That was the one aircraft at Chanute I was most worried about heading to the scrapper.
Surprised someone like Basler didn't want the C-47 given their operation. Can't say I'm shocked about the C-133 though. There aren't many places or people who can afford to move one, even fewer that could keep it inside and it's not exactly an aircraft the general public recognizes for fundraising, attendance, etc. It's obviously unfortunate, but not surprising.

It would be fantastic if the Air Force would greenlight one of the F105's being squeezed onto one of the flatbeds moving the Connie to Michigan.

RANTOUL — High winds blew across the north part of Champaign County on Monday night, leaving damage in their wake.

Champaign County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Coile said power poles are leaning, branches are down and corn that was 5 feet tall is on the ground.

“It looks like someone drove over it with a roller,” Coile said.

On the former Chanute Air Force base in the southwest part of Rantoul, high winds moved a massive C-133 cargo plane on the air museum grounds about 90 degrees. The tail section of the plane, which had been facing southeast, is now facing northeast.

“There were no skid marks,” said Allen Jones, director of the air museum, which is now closed. “The wind just picked it up.”

The movement of the plane caused minor damage to a fence.

He said it did not appear the movement damaged the plane, which is one of five at the former air museum that are targeted to be put out for bid for scrap metal.

Jones said the canopy off a nearby F-105 was also blown off.

Nearby, the wind blew part of the roof off the main hangar.

“I’ve got a skylight now,” said Airport Operations Supervisor Corky Vericker, who said he got a call from village police at 2 a.m. alerting him to the damage.

Vericker came in and began cleaning up insulation and other debris from the roof damage.

“There are a couple of billboards on 45 flattened, trees uprooted,” said Rantoul police Sgt. Justin Bouse. “Three contractor trailers on the Lincoln’s Challenge site were flipped over,” he said.

Several runs of fence at Lincoln’s Challenge were also blown over or broken.

The metal soffit on the village-owned Jackson Hall building at Century and Flessner was also ripped off, Bouse said.

Greg Hazel, Rantoul public works director, said the straight-line winds reached about 70 mph.

He said most of the damage was in a corridor between International and Flessner avenues beginning on U.S. 45 and then east on the former base.

The storm knocked out power to about 200 mostly residential customers.

“We had some power outages south of International along the Cantonment and Embassy Row area that were out last night and this morning.”

Added Hazel: “We only had about a half inch of rain out at the wastewater plant, which is must-needed rain, but we didn’t need the winds that went with it.”

Hazel said practically all of the public works crews were dealing with the storm damage, either restoring power or cleaning up downed limbs and trees.

The sound of chainsaws and vehicles was omnipresent as the cleanup took place on the former base.

The damage was so spotty that some Rantoul residents didn’t realize strong winds had blown through the south part of their town.

Champaign County Emergency Management Agency Coordinator John Dwyer said he was told a tree limb had landed on a parked car in the 700 block of Embassy Row.

He also reported that late Monday there was a tree, about 30-40 feet tall, that was uprooted at county roads 600 E and 2550 N, which is about 3 miles north of the Lake of the Woods in Mahomet. For a time, a tree limb blocked a southbound lane of Illinois 47 north of Mahomet, he said.

Coile said out in the country, there was many tree limbs down.

At a home about 4 miles west of Rantoul on County Road 2900 N, the wind flipped over an old wooden wagon with steel wheels that was a yard decoration, he said.

Deputies also found a couple of roads that had large tree limbs across them and power poles broken.

Ameren crews were out Tuesday morning working on those.

Coile said the first storm cell moved through the county between around 9:30 and 10 p.m. and a second hit around midnight.

Dwyer said he was not certain but believed the storm may have moved from northeast to southwest. The damage is suggestive of straight-line winds, he said.