1:1 scale warbirds, help needed !!!!

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I know it’s an odd request, but, my museum (of which I am Director) has just received seven Vietnam era warbirds… and I’m looking for individuals in the New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Northern Virginia areas who have experience working on the following airframes:

OV-1 Mohawk
T-33/P-80 Shooting Star
F-100 Super Sabre
F-101 Voodoo
F-105 Thud
F-4 Phantom
T-28 Trojan

Over the summer, I will be assembling volunteer crews to assist in the recovery of these aircraft. The end goal is to move these aircraft from Aberdeen, Maryland, to Teterboro, NJ, by truck.

This is our Mohawk (in better days), which we’re recovering in 3 weeks.

This is our T-33, as she appeared last week:

We will be assembling a team for this project in late May, early June.

And this is our F-100, as she appeared last week:

We’ll start work on this aircraft in mid-late June.

If you’re interested, contact me at the NJ Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum, 201-288-6344, or via email at: director@njahof.org

The F-4, F-105, F-101, and T-28 schedules have not been finalized yet, but we’re hoping to have at least 2 of these aircraft moved in addition to the Mohawk, T-33, and F-100.

I need serious recovery crews who can turn wrenches, and know the aircraft. Sorry, but I can’t have guys standing around telling war-stories and drinking coffee. Since the aircraft are located on a restricted area on an active US Army post, you will be required to provide photo ID and Social Security numbers.

Kinda figured if there’s guys out there modeling these things, then there’s guys out there who worked on them…

And yes, I will be photographing every nut and bolt of every aircraft we recover.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff Herne
Director, NJAHOF
www.njahof.org

2

hey Jeff_Herne;
When I was a Volenteer for the Lowery Heritage Museum we received a B-57 and it had its wing roots cut off at where the bolt hold the wing to the fuselage and this caused a large problem when we where going to assemble it at it display area, I seriously suggest you talk to the people that will dismantle the warbirds and make sure they take the time and remove the panels to gain access to the wing root attachment hardware, this will help on dismantling, movement and reassembly, trust me I’ve worked on restoring old planes for flight status and if you take the time & effort then it’ll repay you 100 fold in the end

3

We’re not cutting ANYTHING…these aircraft will be disassembled, not dismembered.

We’ve done this several times as well, so we’re going totally blind. We simply need experienced people on these airframes.

Jeff

4

Jeff, last year a small team of us attempted to dismantle a T 33 for road transport. We had to give up in the end, we simply could not get the panels above the wings off to get at the wing bolts. We were rather short of kit, so I would suggest you’ll need a least a compressor & air tools to get those bolts out. This a/c by the way, is one of four sitting in a compound on Riyadh Airbase. All have been there for years & are fairly derelict.
I did find a spare wing amongst them, on it the R of RSAF had weathered off & the U of USAF was visible, as was the outline of the star & bars.
Good luck, you’ll need it!
Pete

5

I know about the recovery aspect of a museum. I worked at the McClellan AFB museum and helped with the recovery and restoration of some of the display AC. Our F-101B was flown into us but it still took us 3 months to get it ready for display. Coincendently, it’s 57-427, the same bird that was the featured AC of the 1/48 Monogram kit. I tried to get them to leave it in its markings but the powers that be decided to paint it as something else. Our F-102 took 4 months to recover because it was an ex-Hawaii air guard bird and it had sat in the open in Hawaii for about 15 years when we went and got it. The corrosion was so bad that we had no choice but to cut some of the wing bolts. Take lots of photos of problem areas and take a lot of notes. We had one guy who was an accomplished artist and some of his diagrams were indespensible when it came time to put everything back together. Visit their website to see the way these planes look today. I wasn’t on the EC-121 recovery, but it was a lot of fun from what I heard about it. Rattlesnakes and scorpions inside the plane and then losing an engine when they flew it in. Good luck with your endeavours and please keep us posted on whats going on. Wish I could help you.

6

Jeff,

Well, you know me… I’ll be there as soon as I can! Also, I’ve got some contacts we can get in touch with who are regulars at this sort of thing. Talk to you soon

7

I wish I could help… that would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

8

sure wish i was (much) closer, would love to get involved in this. i havn’t any experience with these types (cept cleaning a hun once) but have worked for an air museum and on some civil stuff too.
good luck with the project (and PLEASE post pics)
Greg

9

Hey Jeff I work right where the aircraft are parked so if you want some help just let me know. Just drop me an email. I am also an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic and just might want to help out with this. Now for an another question about which “Thud” you are picking up. Cause there is one here that i would like to see go to a good home. The one i am talking about is “Peach 91” the last F-105 to be flown by the Georgia Air National Guard. Like I said any questions just email me.

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Oh and I forgot to mention that Monogram F-105G model came with the decal options for that bird.

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That’s our F-105…the Georgia Peach. We’re also getting Hun 911, the TX ANG F-4 #750, the T-33 and F-101. The Mohawk is first though…

We’re going into this project prepared…air tools, impact wrenches, cutting torches, lots of drill to remove rivets, etc…

We’re not allowed to take photos where these aircraft are located, unless I can get our POC at Aberdeen to do the actual photography, and then it’ll have to be run through channels to get clearance.

I’ll keep everyone posted as we go along.

Jeff Herne
Director, NJAHOF
www.njahof.org

12

I wouldn’t know which way to turn the wrench[:I] so I’ll help by just staying out of the way! I wish you the best of luck and hope the move(s) go smoothly.
Paul

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hey Jeff_Herne;
I’m not saying your cutting anything but what I ment was that the people who preped the B-57 said they knew how to tear down & ship the plane but they did something completely different, and what I wanted to say is that remove the wing root bolts that mount the wing to the fuselage and don’t let anyone do any cutting except for maybe a panel just to get to the hardware to remove the wings but the panels are sheet metal and easy to replace, but if you could get to the hardware then don’t cut, and make sure that the people transporting the planes knows what their doing

14

The location of the airplanes (compliments of Terraserver-usa.com) is just west of Phillips Field, Aberdeen Proving Ground.


Aircraft at APG Lat 39.4646 Long -76.1806 /a>

http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=10&x=1991&y=21844&z=18&w=2

15

To bad that that image that you listed is about ten years old drummonn. They aren’t situated like that today. I work out where they are at and get to look at them everyday. To bad that you cant get that C-54 that’s out here Jeff[V][V][V]. Oh well maybe one day someone will get her.

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Yes, I know the image is old but it’s all that I can locate quickly on-line for free.

Newer imagery costs $$$, and I don’t have a user’s license to the terraserver.com webpage.

17

LOL I here that drummonn. Oh and [#welcome] to the forums.

18

Wish I lived closer Jeff, I’d toss in some time on the Avionics!! Good luck to all of you at your museum, and let us in on some good snapshots!!!

19

Thanks for the support gang!!

So far, we’ve come up with some former crew chiefs of these aircraft, and the crew cheif of the only flying F-100F in Indiana is coming out this summer to supervise the project!!

Falcon, we’ll b e arriving on May 11th to start work on the Mohawk. IF something dramatic happens at the museum, we could very well be putting in a request for the C-54…that’s an original Berlin Airlift bird!!!

Cuda, I have some of the best people in the business working on these aircraft. Nothing will be cut unless it’s absolutely necessary, and more than likely it would be bolts and things like that… it is my intention to restore these aircraft back to airworthy condition, although we won’t be flying them.

This way, when the aliens invade, I can fuel up the F-105 and have a little fun…just kidding, it’s the medication…lots of bendryl lately from these ^&%&(* allergies.

Best Regards,

Jeff

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[#ditto][#ditto] I’m right there with ya on those Allergies!!! God it’s horrible!! How much snot can one man produce??? I’ll let everyone know when I’m finished draining!!!