Tora Tora Tora Revisited... Val Replicas

[mrhenniger]

Bill Word provided some very good information from a 1969 article by "Tora 3" by Mauno A. Salo, along with some of his own info.

Bill noted that three C/Rs don't appear on my list for the Vultee Valiants as Val replicas. They are...

N67629 AI-232
N54865 AI-235
N18102 AI-245

WD4 does not have a section for Valiants and therefore I can't look-up the IDs of these Val replicas easily. Someone here mentioned something about a historical N-number register. Where can I find that?

Also Bill Word spotted a Val replica at the Wings Over Houston air show in 1985 with the markings "32-222" on the tail. Does anyone know which Val replica this is?

Thant is it for now. I thank-you in advance for any information that you can provide.

Regards,

Mike

[mrhenniger]

I have received the following information from Benno Goethals, the T-6 guru...

"A few years ago a BT-13 was reported at La Ferte Alais airfield (some
50 kilometers south of Paris); this might be N63163. On May 30 I will
go to the annual airshow there. Will keep my eyes open."

Can anyone confirm. I believe the Val replica N63163 was exported to France. Has anyone seen it recently?

Also I would like find some FAA-Records from 1969 and even the the few years aftwards might be useful. Not only would such information be useful for identifying some Val replicas, but Benno is looking for the same info to help identify some former JASDF T-6Gs. My Tora list has a few T-6Gs used in the filming of the movie, but there were 21 actually converted for use in the filming so there are many more to be identified.

Does anyone have any any info that could help break down these barriers to completing the list?

Mike

The ones I saw at Long Beach were Harvard 4s, I don't have any numbers.

[mrhenniger]

When did you see them? Was it in 1968 when they were being converted at Long Beach for the movie? Next question... Any pictures?

Thanks for posting.

Mike