F-89 to get a new home

Hal B · **Posted:** Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:44 pm

As a follow up to my "Whatzit" post of a few weeks ago...

Since it's now on the museums Facebook page and posted in several spots in the museum building guess I can finally 'fess up to what some of you have suspected for awhile; that the HFM has acquired an F-89J. At present, plans are afoot to shortly get it moved from Helena MT to KBLI for restoration and display.

Fellow Wix'er "Steve Crewdog" will be assisting us with the move and has agreed to provide regular updates and photos of the move to a museum blog. When things progress a little further, I'll post a link to that blog for those who might want to follow the adventure.

Now on to some pictures...

One big mutha' :shock:

Note relative size of rental truck parked beside it.

Ramp Rash!

As you can see the old beast is in pretty good condition with only a few missing parts and was runable as recently as 1997. About the only damage we noticed was the dinged up tip tank and a burnt spot in one of the engine covers caused by a fire in the engine bay.

Stay tuned folks!

TimAPNY · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 7:01 am

what do you mean by "runable"?

Looks like a great project, glad to see it being saved.

Tim

Steve S · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 7:12 am

It will be intereesting to watch you get it out of there =
Curious to hear fire in engine bay and runable in the same post. Is the fire the reason it is No Longer "Runable"

JBoyle · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:48 am

I hate seem seem an outsider and not part of the "club"...but could you translate?
HFM? Paul Allen's collection?

KBLI? Everett..or an old AM radio station...

Hal B · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 9:38 am

"what do you mean by "runable"?"
Runable as in the ability to have the engines make noise and smell bad

"Curious to hear fire in engine bay and runable in the same post. Is the fire the reason it is No Longer "Runable""
Yes

Unless there's something else wrong we haven't found yet.

"I hate seem seem an outsider and not part of the "club"...but could you translate?
HFM? Paul Allen's collection?
KBLI? Everett..or an old AM radio station..."

HFM= Heritage Flight Museum, NOT Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection
KBLI= Bellingham; almost but not quite part of Pugetopolis

tex-fan · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 9:52 am

hey Hal B, HFM has mostly an airworty collection. could this jet maybe become a flyer or static? either way, congrats on the new family member.

viking73 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:37 am

Nice Hal! Please keep the pictures coming.

-Derek

Hal B · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:35 pm

tex-fan wrote:

hey Hal B, HFM has mostly an airworty collection. could this jet maybe become a flyer or static? either way, congrats on the new family member.

As it's still actually .gov property it won't fly; but,,,, it MAY move under it's own power again, someday. That's the long-term goal :wink:

Initially, it'll get some replacement tires, a good cleaning inside and out, and new paint. Then we've got to find replacements for the missing parts and start getting the cockpits back in proper shape. And on and on...

After we get it moved and into our maint. hanger I'll get some photos of the progress over in the Maintenance section.

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 1:50 am

Always great to see another old bird saved!

For having been outdoors for so long, the plexiglass appears to be in remarkably good condition.

SN

Fishing · **Posted:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 2:20 am

Wow! Can't wait to get my hands dirty. From the photos it looks like J.R. underestimated the 5 to 6 day project

when he talked me into joining the crew. If it takes thirty I'll be there with a smile on my face! See you in a few days. Take care,
Einar

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 5:43 am

Hal B wrote:

tex-fan wrote:

hey Hal B, HFM has mostly an airworty collection. could this jet maybe become a flyer or static? either way, congrats on the new family member.

As it's still actually .gov property it won't fly; but,,,, it MAY move under it's own power again, someday. That's the long-term goal :wink:

Initially, it'll get some replacement tires, a good cleaning inside and out, and new paint. Then we've got to find replacements for the missing parts and start getting the cockpits back in proper shape. And on and on...

After we get it moved and into our maint. hanger I'll get some photos of the progress over in the Maintenance section.

That would be a great tribute to those many who never fought overseas but stayed here at home to protect us. Would love to see more ADC!!!

You guys going to get a MB-1 to hang on the pod???

Hal B · **Posted:** Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:21 pm

Fishing wrote:

Wow! Can't wait to get my hands dirty. From the photos it looks like J.R. underestimated the 5 to 6 day project

when he talked me into joining the crew. If it takes thirty I'll be there with a smile on my face! See you in a few days. Take care,
Einar

Hi Einar,
Glad you're going to be aboard for this one. And we think the time est. should be pretty close...unless some major unforseens happen.

Hal B · **Posted:** Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:24 pm

N3Njeff wrote:

You guys going to get a MB-1 to hang on the pod???

Could be

Steve Crewdog · **Joined:** Tue Dec 02, 2008 7:14 pm **Posts:** 52

Should be fun.

aerocapture · **Joined:** Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:36 pm **Posts:** 23

Hey Hal, I finally got signed up here... Dave Lowrance and I will be tagging along as well to film and photography the project - Lyle

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F-89 to get a new home

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