Stephen Rister wrote:
The Swordfish is still here in Midland. Some aircraft were sold due to lack of sponsor units or type that couldn't sell rides.
Stephen
I would have thought that bird would have been sold by now to the WWII Museum in New Orleans, or maybe found a buyer in Canada.
StangStung wrote:
Very interesting, thanks for posting.
I used to be a member and regularly get the Dispatch ages ago. Always enjoyed fleet updates.
Can someone who is current explain to me the proliferation of post-WWII aircraft? L-17, T-28, etc.? It seems a good portion of the fleet is now non-WWII aircraft. How/why did this come to be?
Also, back in the day ('80s) there were a few Buchons, and a Spanish Ju-52. What happened to all the adversaries? I seem to recall some controversy about the Ju-52 sporting a swastika being an issue. Did the CAF finally just throw up their hands and say, "forget it"? Also, did the Swordfish and I-16 go away?
So many questions....thanks for the patience of the WIX braintrust!
It seems to me, that since the rebrand in the early 2,000s, the move has been to phase out alot of the foreign stuff altogether to focus on purchasing more entry level US aircraft (L-birds, trainers, etc.) that more wings can operationally handle, with the option to eventually acquire larger aircraft maybe either through the chain of command, or possibly acquiring it externally themselves. Here's what I can slap together. Anyone else chime in to correct / edit.
Swordfish - CAF Midland, TX
Ju-52 - Sold to the Military Aviation Museum - Virginia Beach, VA
HA-11112 - Sold overseas to Germany. Rebuilt as two seater. DE
A6M2 - Sold to Pearl Harbor Air Museum (I don't blame them given the notorious reputation that plane has had). Ford Island, HI
I-16 - Sold to Kermit Weeks in Polk City - FL
The SoCal group for whatever reason seems to be the holdout for almost all of the remaining foreign aircraft in the CAF fleet.
A6M2 Zero
BF108
Storch
Replica Kate (just announced on Facebook)
Only a few other aircraft are left:
Finch - Granby Texas
AN-2 - CAF HQ in Dallas
Mig 15s - Arizona Airbase
The only other "foreign" birds I can think of are the Tora Tora aircraft. Anyone else have anything?