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HU-16 Albatross in PA?

Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:00 pm

I'm in the Army Reserves, and we went out to West Virginia this weekend. On the way back today, we went through Harrisburg, PA. In a town called Middlesex, I spotted a HU-16 Albatross, what appeared intact, on some one's lawn near the highway. Any body know about this? I didn't have enough time to get my camera out and snap a pic.

Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:26 am

I remember reading the article in the local (Harrisburg, PA) paper last year about this plane. I believe it was advertised on Ebay and they paid $75000. They picked it up at military base in Sao Paulo Brazil. They put a lot of work into it to get it to the point where they could ferry it to Pennsylvania. They were planning on a full restoration and maintaining it in airworthy condition but I don't know how that has worked out.

That is the info I can vaguely recollect.

Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:45 pm

FYI-

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2007 ... ews959.txt

The Albatross is based at Carlisle (PA) Airport and while visible from I-81 it is two exits west of the Middlesex Exit.

Tom-

Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:46 pm

Cool Story- They got any more down there? Anyone wanna make me a loan? :) 8) :roll:

Robbie

Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:15 pm

Same song different verse- Lynn Hunt and Jerry Janes did the same thing back in 1995-96 when they bought three from the BAF in Sao Paolo. N97HU (HU-16A) was the one we kept here in Canada (Shot down in Mexico while drug running in 2004), Lynn kept N98HU (HU-16B) and PBY-guy, the one you saw was N99HU which was part of the original deal. Below is a pic from Ray Wolfe's albatross site when it was still down there and a link to the Airport-Data file on the plane. Robbie, if you are interested and don't want to mess about in Brazil, Lynn still has N98HU at Santa Rosa airport and I do believe it is for sale. It is a bit of a fixer-upper but nothing a few Ben Franklins can't fix. The ferry flight from Sao Paolo to KSTS and CZBB was quite an adventure.

XB-JHH, ex-N97HU after her little incident in Mexico:
Image
and a link to the article (sorry, only available in Spanish):
http://www.esmas.com/noticierostelevisa/mexico/383475.html

N98HU (from Ray Wolfe's Albatross site):
Image

N99HU (from the same site):
Image
From Airport-Data.com:
Image
Image
http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/N99HU.html
And finally some interior pics found on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/n99hu/

Hope this helps.

Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:58 pm

Does any one have any contact info for the owners? I'd like to talk to them if possible. Thanks for the info, I tried to find it on Google Earth today, but no dice.

Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:59 pm

Does any one have any contact info for the owners? I'd like to talk to them if possible. Thanks for the info, I tried to find it on Google Earth today, but no dice.
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