Air & Space Mag No.3 - 'Mystery' Hellcat

[JDK]

Another from the Air & Space Magazine reader's archive. I'm sure some WIX member will give us the full story on this beast...

Bruce Craig of Portland, Oregon, writes: "I took these two photos of an F6F Hellcat in May 1964. It was owned by a fellow named Fowler, and it was at his landing strip on Shaw Island, Washington. It was flyable at that time. I have no idea of its BuNo or what may have happened to it."

http://www.airspacemag.com/reader-scrap ... rt=385&c=y

Nifty scheme!

[Jack Cook]

Bill Compton's N4965V

[The Inspector]

And, what ever became of 'Little Nugget"? The Hellcat owned by the owner of ALASKA AIRLINES around the same time.

[JDK]

Thanks Jack.

Seems to be the same aeroplane, Inspector. From the Warbird Directory:

A-212 • F6F-3 Bu08825 N4965V Michael E. Coutches, Hayward CA 59/62
(open storage unrest. “Navy UA15”, Hayward 59/61)
Wayne B. Fowler, Shaw Island WA: sprayer 64/66
Charles F. Willis/ Willisco Inc, New York NY 68/72
(based Seattle-Paine Field WA, flown in
Alaska Airlines colour scheme "Little Nugget")
Willard Compton, Canby OR 75/03
struck ditches, forced landing. near Canby OR 12.6.77
(rep. long-term rebuild project)

As list, oldest extant Hellcat?

[Jack Cook]

Yes it is. It flew combat with VF-37 USS Sagamon.

[Enemy Ace]

hey jack, do you have a VF-37 hellcat photo so we could see what it would look like restored in those colors?

[Steve Rister]

Hi Everyone,

I have contacted Mrs. Compton concerning the Hellcat. Mr. Compton has not been
in good health thus the F6F has been transfered to their son of whom is a dentist.

Gary Austin was interested in the F6F for someone else and I never found out if
the info I passed on ever materialized. That was last summer.

Stephen

[The Inspector]

JDK, Thanx for the information, I as a kid in the Seattle area never knew about Mr. Fowler but Shaw Island is up in the San Juans. I used to see 'Little Nugget' pass over our house into or out of SEATAC.
Jack, thanx to you for the background info on it's history in theatre.
Willis was a slippery guy, if you can find a copy of ALASKAS 50th Anniversary book, the parts pertaining to Willis and his pulling parts out of the scrap barrel and throwing away the red tags makes your hair get tight.
A friend of my late dad worked for ALASKA in the immediate post war period, and everyone would find out when a freight contract had been paid and they would race to the bank to cash their accumulated paychecks while there was money-Chuck used to say that Willis was so tight that when he bent over, you heard bagpipe music

[Dan K]

hey jack, do you have a VF-37 hellcat photo so we could see what it would look like restored in those colors?

I'm not Jack Cook, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Here's the only decent Sangamon Hellcat pic I could find:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/03/cve-26/10a.jpg

[The Inspector]

County maintenance operation, one out of sight guy working and 7 standing around on double time................

[Enemy Ace]

wow Thanks Dan K!!
If that's the sole surviving airplane, it sure doesn't look too hot either with 1 wing gone!

[Jack Cook]

That picture isn't VF-37 they were aboard in late 1944 during the early part of the Philippines campaign.
I'll see if I have a photo. Standard tri-color scheme with number on fuselage and vertical.
Bill is in pretty bad shape and his son is sort of handling stuff but not doing anything with Bill's stuff for
now. But, when they're ready I'll hear and help somebody with it. I wouldn't suggest bothering them about
the airplane has Bill is the priority now!

[willc]

Hey, I was just googling around trying to find this specific hellcat. I'm Bill's grandson and just happened upon this, kind of weird to see people talking about him, and thanks for the wishes. The plane was crashed at one point as I'm sure you know, however the majority of the parts are all sorted out and tagged with what I believe is the intent to restore in the future. If you have any other questions I might be able to help

[ChrisDNT]

Beautiful aircraft !
As much I don't like the modern simili-warbirds überglossy finishes, as much I do like the classic 50-60-70's "executive" finishes on US warbirds.

[PinecastleAAF]

as much I do like the classic 50-60-70's "executive" finishes on US warbirds

I like most of them also. I think we will see a return to that someday and people will restore and paint a/c to represent their civil history after the war. Just one more thing to like about warbirds. It's all good.