Warbird Information Exchange

The first three photos of this as-yet-unidentified FJ-3 were taken by Claude Sheaffer on December 5, 1975; the last two color shots were taken by Leon Cleaver on June 28, 1977 at the Lake Norman Airport, Lake Norman, NC:










Quoting Leon:

As with the Cougar and SNJ, the B&W side view appeared in Air Classics, April 1976, page 12. From the original caption:

Anyone remember this plane from the playground? Around 50 of these Furies were struck off charge at the MCAS Cherry Point, NC O&R Center (now Fleet Readiness Center East) in mid-October 1963 so maybe it came from that batch.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

This is the Fury that is/was on display recently at Hickory, NC. It was recovered by helicopter in the 1990s IIRC.

Thanks quemerford - just sent an email to Jeff Wofford at the Hickory Aviation Museum; their website says the plane came from Taylorsville in 1991. Maybe it went from Lake Norman to Taylorsville? This might complete the history.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Bear in mind that the Museum has/had two FJ-3s. 'Yours' is Bu Aer No 141393, which was struck off at Cherry Point on October 16th 1963.

The Museum's 'other' Fury came from John Muszala I think.

Heard back from John Wofford:

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

I'll have to dig out my photos because I'm sure one of those FJ's was this machine - even down to the bashed-in replacement gun doors and the home-made, single curvature panel atop the nose!

Update! While on another project, I found this in the 1965 Mooresville High School yearbook, and we're closer to an ID:

Badly faded, but definitely was coded AK-212 (VF-62). Five-digit tail number is even more faded but the first digit is a 3; there was a batch of Furies in the 135xxx - 136xxx range and around 33 of them were SOC at MCAS Cherry Point.
Anyone know a way to get a definite ID from the AK-212 code?

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

As stated above, it's 141393, donated to Mooresville in October 1964 and displayed in Liberty Park. It's ex-VMF-235 and the tail code is 'AM' rather than AK. 141393 was coded 12/DB when land-based and 212/AM as part of its CVG.

Hmm. Well:

Sure looks like AK to me, but... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

So two possibilities: the aircraft was repainted at least once before that overall grey scheme was added, or the Hickory FJ-3 has been mis-identified. The line from donation to Woodsville to Hickory appears to be sound, so the only thing in doubt seems to be the aircraft ID.