O-47 Survivors/Restorations

[Ryan Keough]

One of the first planes I remember seeing in Air Classics when I was a youngin' (back in the 80's) was the O-47... and if I recall, it was right after one landed and caught on fire after an airshow.

Which leads me to... other than the example in the NMUSAF, are there any other O-47's on display and are there any under restoration to fly again?

[Matt Gunsch]

Planes of Fame has another fusealge and with the parts salvaged for the crashed one, they have enough to restore. There is one other in a museum in Kansas.

[JDK]

Ryan - good thread on Flypast forum by Octane 130. Maybe you should invite him over?

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=74978

[Taigh Ramey]

Hello Ryan,

NASM has an amazing example in Storage. It is another time capsule with most of its original equipment still intact. I fell in love with this big pregnant beast after crawling through her.









She presents a good study of early North American Aviation furnishings, hardware and detail.

[51fixer]

The 1st restoration I helped with as a teen was working on the O-47 at POF.
It was also the 1st warbird I got a ride and was flown by Jim Maloney.
Great memories.
Rich

[Michel C-GNCJ]

Oh, you mean the one at the Combat Air Museum in Topeka ! Interresting bird indeed:

[Forgotten Field]

I don't know if people knew this, but the O-47 was designed and test flown in Baltimore Maryland at Logan Field near Dundalk. I was talking to a WWII veteran and when we got to talking about where he lived, he said he lived right across from the North American hangar at the field. Right before the war, North American maintained a servicing hangar in the old production hangar. This guy said for some reason, the O-47's that came in for servicing would be flown in on the the weekend, and on Monday morning, first thing, the factory people would move the plane to the rear of the hangar to work on it. This made it necessary to park it with one wing sticking out over the street car line that took all the Sparrow's Point Bethlehem Steel workers to work. He said on more than one occasion, the streetcar would be stopped by the wing for a period of time long enough to get the people on the way to work agitated. He said that it would get to the point that all the workers would pour out of the streetcar and start shouting in all these different languages at the people in the hangar. He said it was funny to hear Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Russian, and other Eastern European curses, the North American people shouting back at them to get back on the bus while pushing the airplane out of the way.

I thought it was a neat story. North American Dundalk also built the Curtiss SOC floats.

[tom d. friedman]

kermit weeks has 1, not sure of it's condition or current status.

[TAdan]

Here is the one in Dayton...

[Ryan Keough]

NASM has an amazing example in Storage. It is another time capsule with most of its original equipment still intact. I fell in love with this big pregnant beast after crawling through her.

She presents a good study of early North American Aviation furnishings, hardware and detail.

Taigh, amazing photos! Thank you for sharing them with us! Do any of our NASM insiders know if/when this example might be seeing the light of day?

[Ryan Keough]

Oh, you mean the one at the Combat Air Museum in Topeka ! Interresting bird indeed:

This raises another question, is it true that most of the Combat Air Museum assets are Tallichet/MARC aircraft? Does that include this O-47? I hear little about this museum (and the Liberal Air Museum in KS as well)... does anyone have any idea of what the status/plans of these museums are?

[Cubs]

Some years ago, an 0-47 was pulled from the Holly Shelter swamp near Holly Ridge, NC. It was removed by the Marines as an exercise. Where it went , I'm not sure. IT did go to a museum, my guess it was Quantico.

[gilt]

Often overlooked is that the North American "J" in the USN designation system, SNJ, PBJ, comes from Berliner-Joyce the orginal tenent of the still standing home plant of North American in Dundalk. North American got the "J" because "N" was allocated to the NAF and Berliner-Joyce was the oldest part of North American with a USN manufacturers letter designation.

Tom-

I don't know if people knew this, but the O-47 was designed and test flown in Baltimore Maryland at Logan Field near Dundalk. I was talking to a WWII veteran and when we got to talking about where he lived, he said he lived right across from the North American hangar at the field. Right before the war, North American maintained a servicing hangar in the old production hangar. This guy said for some reason, the O-47's that came in for servicing would be flown in on the the weekend, and on Monday morning, first thing, the factory people would move the plane to the rear of the hangar to work on it. This made it necessary to park it with one wing sticking out over the street car line that took all the Sparrow's Point Bethlehem Steel workers to work. He said on more than one occasion, the streetcar would be stopped by the wing for a period of time long enough to get the people on the way to work agitated. He said that it would get to the point that all the workers would pour out of the streetcar and start shouting in all these different languages at the people in the hangar. He said it was funny to hear Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Russian, and other Eastern European curses, the North American people shouting back at them to get back on the bus while pushing the airplane out of the way.

I thought it was a neat story. North American Dundalk also built the Curtiss SOC floats.

[Rogue]

Taigh, amazing photos! Thank you for sharing them with us! Do any of our NASM insiders know if/when this example might be seeing the light of day?

I'd like to see it just like it is, dust it off and display it!

[51fixer]

Some years ago, an 0-47 was pulled from the Holly Shelter swamp near Holly Ridge, NC. It was removed by the Marines as an exercise. Where it went , I'm not sure. IT did go to a museum, my guess it was Quantico.

Ed Maloney acquired that in trade and it is the basis for rebuilding the O-47 that bellied in and burned.
It is rough but mostly complete.
Rich