Warbird Information Exchange

58797 - N797GH 20th Jul 2020
71622 - N622GH 20th Jul 2020
71740 - N1740H 20th Jul 2020

All ex Uruguayan Naval Aviation airframes all to same owner: ARTEMIS AVIATION GROUP LLC

Does anyone know anymore

Good catch, Paul.

Artemis is headed by a guy named Jeff Thomas. He's owned Stearman N75JT for a number of years.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Is this the same Jeff Thomas who was involved in sourcing aircraft for Paul Allen 20+ years ago?

Interesting- none of these 3 are listed in the Warbirds Directory Vol 6. I wonder how complete the projects are? How did they go undocumented all this time? How many more are out there that have not been documented in the Directory....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Navy_of_Uruguay
Between 1949 and 1952, the FAS received sixteen TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, three SNJ Texan trainers, and twelve F6F Hellcat fighters.

http://www.pilotoviejo.com/hellcathistory.htm
https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Hellcat/FMS.html
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hypersc ... 81639.html

How exciting! Even if it means a decade more of restoration - THREE hellcats!

Tom P.

Great to have more Hellcats, a seriously underrepresented type considering its history.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

This is great news! There seems to be a lot of momentum with Hellcat restorations in the US right now with the Fagen, Lewis and Allied Fighters examples all under active restoration to flight. I'm interested to hear more about how complete these newly registered airframes are and what the prospects are for potential restoration to flying condition.

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Matt

Info on Pacific Wrecks on Arteimis Aviation-

Artemis Aviation Group LLC
3511 Silverside Road, Site 105
Wilmington, DE 19810-4902
Owner: Mr. Jeff Thomas
Artemis Aviation Group LLC is registered owner of several World War II Pacific aircraft. During the 2000's, Thomas had a limited production run of rubber stoppers manfactured for P-38 gear doors, possibly indicating he was attempting a restoration.

P-40N Warhawk Serial Number 42-104959
Recovered in 1974, stored until 2002 sold to John Fallis 2014 registered as Artemis Aviation Group LLC as N959FT

P-38H Lightning Serial Number 42-66534
Pilot Weldon force landed January 18, 1944. Registered with the FAA as N66534

Weren't there some F6F-5K drone wrecks from Point Mugu recovered from the Channel Islands? Was ownership officially transferred from the Navy? Might they have suddenly sprouted Uruguayan identities? Or am I being overly suspicious?

The Hellcat is so rare in flight that it was not represented in any of the 75 year end of WE II ceremonies. I think it had the best kill to loss ratio in the Pacific.

I believe the best kill to loss ratio of any aircraft in any war.

Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

Just off the top of my head, 19:1 rings a bell.

Andy

Hi all.

Fortunately, our Scramble Military Database ( https://www.scramble.nl/database/military/uy ) sheds some light over these three:
58797 became A-403 and was last seen in 1960 !
71622 became A-451 but seems to be a w/o before delivery (for spares???)
71740 became A-454 -do-

Greetz
Gert Jan
( warbirds at scramble.nl )

The 2 written off before delivery details at below (needs Google Translate) both recovered and used as Spares


http://www.pilotoviejo.com/hellcathistory.htm