Featured Aircraft - War Eagles Air Museum

Third Quarter (Jul - Sep) 2005
Volume 18, Number 3
The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Editorial
A
s a recognized source of aviation
expertise, we often answer aviation-related questions from the
media and other organizations. We also
occasionally furnish aircraft or automobiles for use in photographs, commemorative events or motion pictures. We were
recently especially pleased to respond to
three such requests.
Director Skip Trammell spoke by invitation on May 23 when the El Paso County
Commissioners Court presented a proclamation to 90-year-old Women Airforce
Service Pilot (WASP) Lois Brooks Hailey in honor of her contributions in World
War II. Her uniform has been on display
at the Museum for years. A week later,
we helped an El Paso Times reporter prepare an article on aviatrix Ruth Deerman.
The Museum displays Ruth’s Cessna
140A Cotton Clipper Cutie, with which
she and co-pilot/navigator the late Ruby
Hays won the 1954 All-Women Transcontinental Air Race. Currently we are
working with a local film director for the
use of one of our classic automobiles in a
motion picture to be filmed in El Paso.
War Eagles Air Museum is a one-stop resource for accurate warbird and aviation
history information. Spread the word!
Apologies...The last issue of Plane
Talk stated that the Featured Aircraft
article on the North American AT-6
Texan was in the 3rd Quarter 2004 issue. The article actually appeared in
the 3rd Quarter 2003 issue.
Featured Aircraft
T
he last issue of Plane Talk featured the first part of the story of
the Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic
trainer. This aircraft, produced in great
numbers throughout World War II, provided basic pilot training to nascent U.S.
Army Air Corps (USAAC) and U.S.
Navy (USN) airmen. In this issue, we
look at the rest of the story. Here is the
tale of how War Eagles Air Museum
acquired a well-used BT-13B and, thanks
to the efforts of Museum staff and dedicated volunteers, restored it to what is today considered an excellent example of
S If you’ve ever wondered what’s involved
in restoring an old warbird, this 1990 photograph of the Vultee BT-13B Valiant in the
War Eagles Air Museum shop, with its new
overhauled engine installed, should give you
some idea. It’s a lot of work!
Contents
Editorial......................................1
Featured Aircraft........................1
Tailspins with Parker..................4
Historical Perspectives ..............5
New Face in the Hangar ............6
Membership Application ............7
Corporate Youth Sponsors ........7
Mark Your Calendars.................8
Featured Aircraft (Continued on Page 2)
1
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Due to space limitations, Skip Trammell’s “From the Director” column
does not appear in this issue.
Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 1)
the type. The restoration story is a good
example of the long and often arduous
process that one must follow to keep
America’s venerable warbirds flying.
The BT-13B saga began when War Eagles Air Museum founder John MacGuire purchased it late in 1988. Built in
1942 at the huge Vultee Aircraft Corporation plant at Vultee Field in Downey,
California, it had been one of the aircraft
used in the famous “Flight of Four” formation demonstration team that often
performed throughout the Southwest in
the late 1980s. On October 5, its former
owner, Jim Tilson, delivered the aircraft
to the Museum. He had to fly it on the
250-mile hop from Odessa to Santa Teresa on a “ferry permit” because it was outof-annual (i.e., had not been inspected to
Federal airworthiness standards within
the previous year). A ferry permit, officially called a “Special Flight Permit,” is
an FAA-approved waiver that allows a
pilot to fly an aircraft that does not currently meet airworthiness requirements
but is safe to fly. Ferry permits typically
allow flight between two specified points
for the purposes of delivery, repair, flight
testing or demonstrations only.
On arrival at the Museum, a quick inspection revealed several problems with
the airplane. Each problem alone was
Plane Talk
Published by War Eagles Air Museum
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008
(505) 589-2000
Newsletter Editor: Terry Sunday
Contributing Author: Jim C. Parker
E-mail address:
[email protected]
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Third Quarter 2005
sufficiently serious to
require prompt repair.
Collectively, the problems meant that a much
bigger restoration job
than originally envisioned was in the offing.
For example, when
Chief A&P Mechanic
Dan Taylor checked the
oil screen, he found
metal shavings, which
indicated that the engine was “making metal,” i.e., a bearing or
some other internal
S A key restoration task was the replacement of the “Home Depot”
component was failing. aluminum skin, circumferential formers and bulkhead on the lower
This meant a complete aft tail cone with FAA-approved aircraft-grade aluminum.
engine rebuild. The
center section of the so-called “wet
could see the tailwheel strut move from
wing,” which formed the integral fuel
side to side if you pushed on the rear
tank, had a bad fuel leak and would have
fuselage and flexed the bulkhead,” Dan
to be rebuilt. More ominously, Dan dissaid, shaking his head. Finally, the incovered that the bottom part of the tail
spection crew found out that the left horicone from the rear cockpit aft was made
zontal stabilizer forward stringer had a
of soft aluminum rather than approved
crack in it and had to be replaced. “We
aircraft-quality material. “It was almost
really had our work cut out for us,”
pure soft aluminum instead of a strong
mused Dan as he contemplated the magalloy,” Dan recalled. In addition, the
nitude of the restoration. The task took
lower halves of the rear fuselage circumabout 16 months to complete, although,
ferential formers were made of a differin all fairness, it was not the only fullent material than the upper halves to
time job during that time—other aircraft
which they were riveted—“More ‘dead
and projects also needed attention.
soft’ aluminum,” according to Dan. The
tail cone rear bulkhead, which carried the
The three A&P Mechanics who maintail wheel and horizontal stabilizer, was
tained War Eagles Air Museum aircraft
also made of the wrong material. “You
at the time—Dan Taylor, Gary Hill and
Jack Clark—started to
work immediately. Several volunteer assistants
helped out, including
Tom Blackwell, Dario
Toffenetti, Frank Harrison, Jack Bell, Skip
Trammell and maybe a
couple of others whose
names are lost to history. With the Valiant
securely mounted up on
jacks in the Shop Hangar, the team disconnected and removed the
450-horsepower Pratt &
S The restored instrument panel looks like it just came off of the
Vultee assembly line.
2
Featured Aircraft
(Continued on page 3)
Third Quarter 2005
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
has a low-pitch setting
for takeoff and climb
and a high-pitch setting
for cruise, selectable
by a lever on the throttle quadrant.
While the engine was
off and while wing rebuilding was underway
in the shop, the team
removed most of the
Valiant’s aluminum
skin panels to gain access to the steel-tube
fuselage structure for
a thorough sandblast- S This photograph shows the restored engine control levers and
ing, priming and paint- the new trim system cables running from the trim wheel over the
ing treatment. They small Bakelite pully back to the empennage.
overhauled the enginedriven accessories such as the magnetos,
um’s crowd-pleasing monthly “mini aircarburetor, and fuel and vacuum pumps.
shows” prominently featured the stunS The Valiant’s fuselage was completely
Dan supervised replacement of the origining blue-and-yellow Valiant flying in
stripped down to its tubular frame, which
nal 12-volt generator that powered the
company with the Curtiss P-40E Warwas then sandblasted, primed and painted.
lights, radios and avionics with a new
hawk, the North American P-51D Musalternator that was more reliable and protang and TF-51D Mustang two-seater,
duced better power at low engine speeds.
the North American AT-6F Texan and
Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 2)
They also installed the overhauled oil
the Fieseler Fi.156K Storch.
cooler and all new fuel and oil hoses.
Whitney PW-985-AN-14B, nine-cylindWhile our BT-13B has not flown in sevRecognizing John MacGuire’s passion
er, single-row Wasp Junior radial engine.
eral years, it is about to be resurrected
for shining metal, they laboriously polThey carefully packed it in a big shipping
again. By the time you read this, the venished the stainless-steel firewall to a brilcrate and shipped it to Aero Engines,
erable Valiant will be back in the shop
liant mirror finish.
Inc., in Los Angeles, California, for a
for maintenance and an annual inspecBy early 1990—well over a year after
complete overhaul. The two-position
tion. If all goes well, you’ll be able to see
work began—the engine and propeller
Hamilton Standard propeller went to San
this outstanding example of one of Amerwere back from the overhaul shops, the
Antonio Propeller for refurbishment. Not
ica’s most-widely-used World War II
wing restoration was finished and the
a true “constant-speed” unit, this prop
training aircraft at El Paso’s Amigo Airteam was down to the
sho on October 8 and 9. We’re sure you
last few tasks in the
will agree that it was worth the effort.
job, such as running
new control cables and
mounting new tires.
War Eagles Air Museum
Finally, on February 2,
1990, John MacGuire
climbed into the cockpit, fired up the big radial engine and took
heck War Eagles’ website for
the newly painted Valmore information on the Muiant aloft for a brief test
seum’s aircraft and automoflight over Santa Terebile collections, special event schedsa airport. For the next
ules, “fun and games” and more. We
four years, until prohithank Bruce Quackenbush and Joe
bitive insurance costs
Jones of Artwork Studios in Denver
ended them in 1996,
for designing and maintaining our
S The canopy Plexiglass was meticulously masked off with paper War Eagles Air Musehighly acclaimed website.
On The Web
C
and tape in preparation for painting the frame.
3
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Tailspins
with
Parker
G
eronimo and I were flying back
from a trip up to Albuquerque a
while back. As we crossed over
a barren stretch of Chihuahuan desert just
north of Las Cruces, he peered over the
side of the little Cessna 172 and said over
the drone of the engine, “Y’know, I once
considered buyin’ some property down
there at Radium Springs.”
“Stand by one,” I told him. It was time
for me to get on the radio and announce
to any nearby air traffic that we were going to overfly Las Cruces International
Airport. When I finished up the radio
call, I turned to him and said, “Okay, so
how come you didn’t buy it?”
“Well, I got to thinkin’ about the name
‘Radium Springs.’ What if there really
was radium heatin’ up the water? Why,
you could become radioactive just from
drinkin’ it, let alone soakin’ in it, and
that’s no good thing, I’ve heard tell.”
“That may not be as big a problem as you
think,” I said. Then I told him the story
of Carl Wright, a World War II veteran
who works at the Museum.
“Ol’ Carl went into Nagasaki just three
weeks after we exploded an atomic bomb
there. He told me that when he and his
crewmates went ashore, he didn’t see a
single Japanese, alive or dead. There was
nobody there ‘cept him and his crew.”
thing about radiation before they entered
the port there at Nagasaki and started
clearing mines. They just tied up to the
dock and hooked up to the regular city
water supply. They drank it, cooked with
it, showered in it. One time they walked
into what was left of the city, looked
around and kicked at the rubble. Carl told
me they were all utterly amazed at the
destruction. But as far as knowin’ that all
that damage had been caused by just one
new type of bomb, they were totally out
of the loop and literally out to sea—”
“Now just a minute,” Geronimo interrupted again. “You mean no one in Naval
Intelligence briefed the crew on the dangers of bein’ exposed to left-over radiation from the blast?” He was incredulous.
“First of all, ‘Naval Intelligence’ is an
oxymoron. And secondly, no, Carl and
his crewmates got absolutely no information from anyone,” I explained.
“Why pick on the Navy?” As an ex-Marine, Geronimo can sometimes get a little
defensive. “How about Air Force or Army Intelligence or the CIA? They’re all
just as big or a bigger bunch of oxymorons. Why didn’t someone tell the crew
about the danger?”
I told Geronimo to settle down. He was
getting wild-eyed and agitated, and I
didn’t want him to start flailing around in
the tight confines of the Cessna’s cabin.
“The Air Force and the CIA didn’t even
exist as separate entities in those days,” I
explained soothingly. “It wasn’t ‘til 1947
that the CIA was formed and the Air
Force split off from the Army. For all I
know, the Army brass didn’t even tell the
Navy brass about the bomb. Most likely
there was no communication up, down or
across the chain of command.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “But they didn’t know
what was goin’ on. Carl’d been sailing on
a Mine Craft as part of a big Task Force
bound for Japan. Nobody told them about
the A-bomb explosion. No one said any-
Geronimo was wound up. “Our intelligence services still aren’t worth spit…”
—that wasn’t the exact word he used—
“…Them ’n’ the politicians figgered it
wrong over in Viet Nam, and look at
how many American lives that miscalculation cost. They were clueless on 9/11.
They were clueless when we invaded Iraq. ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction,’ my
eye…”—again, not his exact word. “I tell
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
4
“Wasn’t that a purty good clue that mebbe they shouldna’ been there either?”
Geronimo interrupted.
Third Quarter 2005
John MacGuire
November 3, 1920—August 13, 2001
ya, when our boys went ashore in Iraq,
they was gettin’ all wore out puttin’ on
and takin’ off their dang CBR gear. ‘Intelligence’ shore did get it wrong again.
“And see, the irony is that Carl and his
outfit didn’t get any warnin’s at all about
the dangers they were facin’. For them
guys the dangers were real, but they got
no information, no nothin’. In Iraq, our
troops got all this warnin’ and all this information and all these briefings, but the
danger wasn’t real. Y’see the irony? In
Nagasaki, they needed the info and didn’t
get nothin’, whereas in Iraq they had lots
of info but most of it was bad.”
“Calm down, will ya?” I said as I drew
back the throttle and started a gradual descent to Santa Teresa pattern altitude.
“It’s best to be prepared. And, as I was
about to say before you interrupted, Carl
hasn’t had any problems from whatever
radiation exposure he got. ‘Course, since
they didn’t even have dosimeters, they
had no idea what the exposure was. But,
as Carl recently told me, ‘My teeth don’t
glow, I’ve got all my hair, I’m 76 years
old and I’m still flying.’”
“Really?” Geronimo asked, impressed.
“Hmmm, interesting...I think I might take
another look at that property up in Radium Springs.”
Third Quarter 2005
Historical
Perspectives
by Robert Haynes
A
s a historian, I have found, in
writing these Historical Perspectives columns, that in some cases
it is difficult to come up with sufficient
reference material to do justice to the
subject aircraft. Such is not the case for
the aircraft covered in this issue. In fact,
so much material is available that I have
chosen to split into two parts the story of
the Grumman TBF Avenger.
Millions of words are in print about
Avengers in service with U.S. Navy
squadrons in the Pacific in World War II.
Many people identify the Avenger exclusively with the Pacific, and know that
former President George H. W. Bush was
an Avenger pilot. But the venerable torpedo bomber also played less-wellknown roles. Thus my focus in this column is on the exploits of U.S. Navy aviators flying under British command in Atlantic waters. In the next issue, I will discuss how British pilots flying Avengers
off of British aircraft carriers in the Pacific helped support the U.S.-led invasion
of Okinawa.
Among the overlooked Atlantic Avenger
missions are those flown by U.S. Navy
pilots under British commanders against
targets in occupied Norway. The first
such mission took place on October 4,
1943, from the U.S.S. Ranger (CV-4),
which was operating as a part of the British Home Fleet based in Scapa Flow,
Scotland, under the overall command of
Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser. Operation
LEADER called for the Ranger’s Torpedo Squadron Four (which later fought in
the Pacific) to strike German shipping
targets in the fjords south of Bodø near
Sandnessjöen, while CVG-4 Douglas
SBD Dauntless dive bombers attacked
Bodø harbor. Escorted by six Grumman
F4F Wildcats, 10 VT-4 TBF-1 Avengers
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
launched from the
Ranger at dawn while
the carrier was about
100 miles off the
coast well north of the
Arctic Circle. By the
time the pilots set
course back to the
Ranger after the raid,
they had destroyed
over 23,000 tons of Nazi shipping, including four merchant ships, an oil tanker
and an oil barge. The operation was a
great strategic and psychological success,
despite the loss of three Avengers and
their crews to antiaircraft fire, because it
showed the German occupying forces
that they were not immune from attack
even in the hostile conditions of far
northern Europe. What distressed the
Germans even more was the fact that the
strike had come from the Ranger. Nearly
six months earlier, on April 25, 1943,
Korvettenkapitän Otto von Bülow, the
commander of U-boat U-404, erroneously reported that he had torpedoed and
sank the Ranger, a false claim for which
Hitler had personally decorated him with
Oak Leaves for his Iron Cross.
S This photograph of damaged German
submarine U-378 was taken from the attacking VC-13 TBF-1 Avenger from the U.S.S.
Core, flown by LTJG R. W. Hayman, in the
North Atlantic on October 20, 1943. The Uboat sank soon afterwards.
Photo from http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-378.htm
5
S On April 2, 1943, an Avenger returning
from an anti-submarine patrol in the North
Atlantic flies low over the bow of the U.S.S.
Ranger and drops a message describing the
location of survivors of a U-boat attack on a
merchant ship. This communication technique was commonly used in war zones in
order to avoid breaking radio silence.
Photo from www.uss-rangerguy.com/cv 4b.htm
Before the Norway raid, in the summer
of 1943, the Ranger and her Avengers
took on escort duty in the North Atlantic
to protect Allied convoys from U-boat attacks. Pilots often found escorting convoys more stressful than attacking German targets, because they had to fly their
anti-submarine patrols regardless of the
weather. In many cases they had to fly
from and recover aboard the Ranger in
weather conditions so appalling that any
other kind of mission would have been
cancelled. Bad weather caused the loss of
many more aviators than did combat. The
poor visibility, fog and low ceilings
sometimes caused patrolling pilots to report drifting icebergs or hapless whales
as German submarines.
Of all the ships that VT-4 Avengers protected that summer, none was more famous than the RMS Queen Mary. The
Queen Mary was so fast that most escort
ships could not keep up with her—she
had to depend on aircraft escorts. VT-4’s
escort duties became even more important in August 1943 when British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill sailed to
Canada aboard the Queen Mary to attend
the Quebec Conference and meet with
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Historical Perspectives
(Continued on page 6)
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Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
New Face in the Hangar
er, Pilatus PC6/A Turbo-Porter, Douglas
AC-47 Spooky and Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw. At the time, the U.S. officially denied operating in Laos, so Ed had to wear
civilian clothes while he was there. Fortunately, unlike many of his peers who
ended up seriously traumatized by the
Viet Nam war, he did not find his experiences particularly unpleasant. When he
returned home, his daughters’ Girl Scout
Troop welcomed him as a real hero.
E
d Murray was born on June 19,
1936, in Dayton, Ohio, the home
of the Wright brothers. Naturally,
considering where he spent his formative
years, he developed a love of airplanes
very early in life. His father had a long
career with the Aeroproducts Propeller
Company while Ed was growing up.
Ed earned his FAA Airframe and Powerplant license after retiring from the Air
Force in 1975. After a stint with Seguin
Aviation in Seguin, Texas, he worked in
Iran for Bell Helicopter Corporation and
in Saudi Arabia for Northrop Corporation. His last “civilian” job was for Lear
Siegler, Inc., in San Antonio, doing updates and repairs on Cessna T-37 Tweety
Birds and Northrop T-38 Talons at Randolph Air Force Base. The Murray’s two
In the early 1950s, while his father was
on assignment testing propellers at Edwards Air Force Base in California, Ed
attended Van Nuys High School, where
he met Anita Edmiston. They married in
1953. Ed joined the Air Force a year
later. Although he was not physically
qualified to become an Air Force pilot,
he learned to fly through Air Force aero
clubs, where he earned his Private, Commercial, Instrument and Multi-Engine licenses. Ed and Anita particularly enjoyed
flying the Beechcraft T-34 Mentor. In
1969 and ’70, Ed was a Senior Explosive
Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician in
Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand. His assignments took him throughout Southeast
Asia in aircraft and helicopters such as
the North American T-28 Trojan, de Havilland C-7 Caribou, Helio U-10 Couri-
S The PT-17 Stearman restoration team is
proud of their work on the completed lower
left wing of the 1943 aircraft, which will
soon be back in the air. L. to r., Ray Davis,
Carl Wright, Ed Murray and Bill Whitney.
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
6
Third Quarter 2005
daughters, Candace and Cheryl, still live
in the San Antonio area.
Ed and Anita moved to El Paso early in
2002. After visiting War Eagles Air Museum, Ed quickly realized that it was “the
place to be,” where he could be around
the aircraft he loves and among people of
like mind. He started off as an enthusiastic volunteer, helping to restore and repaint our Soviet-era Mikoyan-Gurevich
MiG-21PFM Fishbed F jet fighter (see
the Fourth Quarter 2004 issue of Plane
Talk for the full story). Then, after coming on board earlier this year as the newest member of the Museum’s permanent
staff, he took on the big task of helping to
re-cover and paint the deteriorated wings
of the PT-17 Stearman.
Ed said that he hopes he’ll be able to
work on projects that he enjoys at War
Eagles Air Museum for a very long time
to come. Welcome aboard, Ed.
Historical Perspectives
(Continued from page 5)
On November 22, 1943, the U.S.S. Ranger returned to the United States for refitting before her eventual transfer to the
Pacific. Other Avenger squadrons continued to operate in the Atlantic for the duration of the war, sinking many U-boats
and greatly improving the survivability
of Allied convoys. Those Avenger crews
proved they could operate just as effectively over the stormy grey North Atlantic
as they could over the clear blue waters
of the Pacific.
SOURCES:
Constable, George (ed.), The Time-Life
History of WWII, Time-Life Books,
1989.
Scrivner, Charles L., TBM/TBF Avenger
in Action, Squadron/Signal Publications,
1987.
Thomas, Gerald W., Torpedo Squadron
Four, 1990 Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University.
Toland, John, The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire,
Volume II, Random House, New York,
1970.
Third Quarter 2005
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Membership Application
War Eagles Air Museum
The War Eagles Air Museum collects, restores and displays historic aircraft, mainly from the World War II and Korean War time
periods, to encourage awareness and appreciation of military aviation history through exhibits, educational programs and special
events. The Museum is a nonprofit organization as defined by the United States Internal Revenue Code. Operated by staff and
volunteers, the Museum is supported by funds obtained from admissions, memberships and contributions. All dues and contributions
are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
War Eagles Air Museum memberships are available in six categories. All memberships include the following privileges:
Free admission to the Museum and all exhibits.
Free admission to all special events.
10% general admission discounts for all guests of a current Member.
10% discount on all Member purchases in the Gift Shop.
In addition, a Family Membership includes free admission for spouses and all children under 18 living at home.
To become a Member of the War Eagles Air Museum, please fill in the information requested below and note the category of membership you desire. Mail this form, along with a check payable to “War Eagles Air Museum” for the annual fee shown, to:
War Eagles Air Museum
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, NM 88008
Membership Categories
NAME (Please print)___________________________________________________
STREET ____________________________________________________________
CITY ______________________________ STATE _____ ZIP _________—______
TELEPHONE (Optional) _____—_____—____________
E-MAIL ADDRESS (Optional) ___________________________________________
Individual
$15
Family
$25
Participating
$50
Supporting
$100
Benefactor
$1,000
Life
$5,000
Will be kept private and used only for War Eagles Air Museum mailings.
W
ar Eagles Air Museum sincerely thanks
the following individuals and organizations for their
donations to the 2005 Corporate
Youth Sponsors Program. This
program educates local student
groups about the contributions
of military aviation to America’s history. For many students,
visits to the Museum funded by
these generous donors kindle an
interest in aviation and related
technical career fields.
War Eagles Air Museum Corporate Youth Sponsors
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
($50−$249)
($250−$499)
($500−$999)
($1,000−$2,499)
($2,500 or more)
Alamo Industries,
Inc.
El Paso Aero, Inc.
El Paso Electric
Company
El Paso Community
Foundation
Jonathan Rogers
Frank and Susan
Borman
Jon T. Hansen
Coronado
Cleaners
C. F. Jordan, L.P.
SWIFCO, Inc.
7
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
War Eagles Air Museum
Doña Ana County Airport
at Santa Teresa (5T6)
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008
Mark Your Calendars
T
he second half of the year is shaping up to be very busy at War
Eagles Air Museum. First on the
agenda is the ceremonial unveiling of the
“American Advances in Aviation” commemorative postage stamp series on August 27. MC’ed by El Paso NewsChannel 9’s Nick Miller, the ceremony will
begin at 9:00AM with parachutists landing at the Museum carrying National,
State and Post Office flags. El Paso Mayor John Cook and Las Cruces Mayor
William Mattiace will be special guests.
Keynote speaker Pat Abeln, Director of
Aviation for El Paso International Airport (ELP), will talk about the history of
the airport and its effect on aviation in
the Southwest. Postmaster Felix Guerra
will then unveil the postage stamp series.
The following 10 aircraft appear on the
stamps: Beechcraft 35 Bonanza, Boeing
Model 247 commercial airliner and B-29
Superfortress, Consolidated B-24 Liberator and PBY Catalina, Engineering and
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Research Corporation Ercoupe 415,
Grumman F6F Hellcat, Lockheed P-80
Shooting Star, Northrop YB-49 “Flying
Wing” and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.
We plan to showcase flying examples of
some of the aircraft featured on the
stamps, including several Bonanzas and
Ercoupes and possibly a visiting Lockheed T-33 (a two-seat trainer version of
the P-80, similar to the one we have on
display in the Museum) from Las Cruces.
We’ll be at the Amigo Airsho at Biggs
Field in El Paso on Saturday and Sunday,
October 8 and 9. Last year we had two
aircraft at the Airsho—our North American AT-6F Texan and our PT-17 Stearman. This year we will take the same
aircraft, provided we finish the long,
painful process of restoring the Stearman’s wings in time. We also plan to
take our Vultee BT-13B Valiant as well,
pending an annual inspection.
Then we will have the big Fifth Annual
Land of Enchantment RV Fly-In, which
will run from Friday, October 14 through
8
Sunday, October 16. All four of the previous New Mexico RV Fly-Ins have been
held at Las Cruces International Airport
(LRU), but this year the organizers asked
us to host it. We’ve been advised to expect over 400 aircraft and up to 1,200
people from all across the country. The
ramp will be filled with RV airplanes as
far as the eye can see. While this event is
not intended for the general public, it will
be an opportunity for Museum visitors to
see a great variety of these tiny, high-performance homebuilts up close.
On Saturday, October 29, we’ll have our
3rd annual sanctioned Chili Cookoff. Attendance at last year’s cookoff was better
than at the first event, and we expect an
increase this year also. A new attraction
to add to the fun will be live music by
Las Cruces’ Salty Dogs bluegrass band.
We hope to see you at these events.
For more information, visit:
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com