The Air Museum's Other F6F-5

[Jack Cook]

F6F-5 N4964W Ontario, CA 1970

[brucev]

is it my eyes or does that prop not look quite right?

[Matt Gunsch]

I was at Chino the year that flipped on landing. I remember them towing it in with the vertical fin sliced down to the fuselage, just forward of the rudder spar. Had a brake lock up on landing, went off the runway, caught the gear on a ditch and flipped over, hitting the only thing on the other side of the ditch, a plow

Landing gear look strange .... Do they?

[Chris]

Looks OK to me.

[Garth]

is it my eyes or does that prop not look quite right?

It looks like the blades are rotated 180 degrees or so from where they should be (iow, cranking up the engine and advancing the throttle would end up with the aircraft moving backwards). But I can't be sure.

It also looks like the wingtip is dished in a bit. And seeing a -5 Hellcat in the tricolor scheme with the post-1947 national insignia is ... interesting.

[rmcf]

no gear doors either..

[chris hill]

hey jack do you have any pictures of the air museums o-47

[Matt Gunsch]

The prop is right, just the angle the picture is taken from.

If Jack does not have any of the O-47, I have some around here I can scan.

[Jack Cook]

No I don't have any of the O-47. I saw it once and thought it was a cool plane!
Is the POF planning on a restoration of theirs?? What about the one in Kansas???

[Matt Gunsch]

Jack,
the POF first O-47 was destroyed in a post gear failure landing fire. They have a 2nd fuselage that they are combining with the remains of the first O-47 to make a flyable plane.

I will go thru my pics and dig up what I have

[Matt Gunsch]

Here is all I have, this goes back to 126 instamatic days,






Here is the accident report
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id= ... 216&rpt=fi

Last edited by Matt Gunsch on Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[chris hill]

thanks cool pictures!

they have been restoring the o-47 at the air museum its just been a long
process but its coming along very slow. they dug the wings out one from the first o-47 that crashed and the second one but there both the same wing I believe.

[verner]

I think the landing gear looks short cause maybe it's fully loaded with petrol as the oleos are tight.

[bdk]

F6F-5 N4964W Ontario, CA 1970

I suspect not. I don't think that airframe was complete at the time, only a fuselage. I would love to be proven wrong however. Are you sure that isn't N4994V?