She seems to be in remarkable shape even when she arrived.
Very low timed bird, around 12,000-13,000 hrs total. She was actively flying up until 2011/2012. When she was ferried to our base, she was still under annual.
We will be the first civilian operator of this plane, period.
What is the history of this bird? What color job or point of history will she be restored to? Who is paying for this?
Just some basic fyi's.
Boo
TSS bird was manufactured in September, 1944 and arrive in Europe and was accepted by the 75th Troup carrier squadron on September 30th. She flew two missions over the battle of the bulge and she flew in operation varsity.
Between those major battles, she flew 97 sorties of various types, 27 of which were considered "fully operational combat sorties". Starting In April 45, she began flying mostly evacuation sorties, evacuating American, British, French and German POW's.
I have her complete detailed history from acceptance until End of may 1945. I do have the history from June 45 till July 46 as well, but most of it is unreadable and is not very detailed.
She will be put back into her full colors upon leaving Europe. Olive drab over Forrest green with neutral grey belly. Squadron code up front is CK, tail letters B. she will have 13 red crosses, two gliders and a locomotive with 24 freight cars painted on her for mission symbols.
Still unknown is if she had a name and/or nose art. However, I have found and gotten in contact with the pilot who this plane was assigned to, who is still alive, and will hopefully be getting this info soon.
The money we have so far for this plane is the money we had from our previous OV-1D which we sold to buy this plane. It's just a few thousand dollars, which won't cover much for her, so we will be doing a donation drive shortly.
Otherwise, it's just members donating their money currently to get supplies needed at the moment.
Looks like a T28
it indeed is. There is actually six aircraft present in that photo.
T-28B, L-21B Seneca (super cub), Fairchild F-24, 2/3 scale P-51 and a BD-4.
The t-28 is in restoration, but is now on hold till we finish the c47. The L-21 is being refinished after a ground loop, the F-24 is on hold due to the L-21 and the p-51 and bd-4 are just statics. The BD-4 may go the National air and space museum though.
