Unknown F-84

[steve dickey]

Any body have info on this one? Where it came from. Friend of my wife's sent it to her knowing I like old planes. Located on Trooper island in dale hollow lake that straddle's Kentucky and Tennessee.
The island is split between the two states but the jet is on the Tennessee side.
It doesn't show up on Mike Henniger's site for either state
Here is a link I found on trooper island. The only thing I've found is that its been there since the 70's.

http://www.josephinesjournal.com/trooper2.htm

[12XU2A3X3]

the counter weight canopy is missing. ky ang never flew the F. possibly 51-1350 ?

F-84F-1-RE s/n 51-1350 *USAF 4930th TSG.
*4/1957: Disposed of by Class 26 at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH.
*9/1957: Donated to the University of Louisville, KY.

via: http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/F-84F.html

[12XU2A3X3]

found this: "a 1951 Kentucky Air National Guard F-84 Thunder jet brought to the island by way of helicopter. The approximate date of the jet’s arrival is not certain, but is believed to have been in the mid 70's. Prior to becoming a permanent fixture on the island, the jet saw action in the Korean War."

both, uh, not true, since the was not KYANG or in korea. alot of surviving F-84Fs came from OHANG in the seventies.

[K5DH]

the counter weight canopy is missing.

Nah... it's the ultra-rare F-84R "Roadster" model!

[gale_dono]

Located at 36.625521,-85.292434, which, despite being visibly over the state line in Tennessee as you mentioned, google maps gives as Burkesville, KY, presumably because it picks the nearest known address. Just right-clicking in the lake south of it gives Byrdstown, TN, which might be a more accurate placename.

Heartening to know there are still more preserved birds out there just waiting to be (re)discovered, though.

The only issue with ID is that, as Clifford Bossie has discovered with the one he's restoring, surviving F-84Fs seem to be ships of Theseus of their own, each made up of parts from multiple different airframes.

[Chris Brame]

The shot from 2005 seems to show camo under the previous silver paint job:

[mrhenniger]

It doesn't show up on Mike Henniger's site for either state

Steve! I feel betrayed. I feel let down. You find a new location and you don't use the Locator forms to add it to the database. Tisk... tisk... tisk...

Location added...
Aerial Visuals - Location Dossier - Trooper Island, Livingston, Tennessee - F-84



Seriously though... the site is intended to be a user contribution system. If anyone finds displayed, stored, relics, etc. that should be in the Locator that are not, please use the forms provided to make sure they are.

Mike

[steve dickey]

Mike I have no excuse,
Same probably goes for the Yerington, Nv Beech 18 I found too, No excuse. I will work on it!
BTW, when I click on the link you have provided the map is to far zoomed in where it says, "sorry we have no imagery here". Is that on my end or can you fix it?
You are more than welcome to use the pic I posted for the dossier. ( as a consolation prize of course!)

[mrhenniger]

I think I saw your post on the Yerinton Beech and created a location dossier for it. I also created the airframe dossier. Follow the links in the Location Dossiers to the Airframe Dossiers listed. In the Airframe Dossiers are links so you can upload photos of that specific airframe. (hint, hint, hint)

As for the "no imagery here" I have no way to control that. The Google Maps API does not provide a way detect when the sat images are poor. Just zoom out a bit and you will see it.

Mike

[cooper9411]

Any ideas as to who the owner is?

[quemerford]

Well here’s a back-to-front story.

A colleague of mine just sent me a link to film of 1956’s “Redwing” nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll and I was surprised to see two F-84Fs, devoid of markings, being used there.





A little research showed that two pilots, Norvin C “Bud” Evans and Charles “Chuck” Kitchens were involved with flying these aircraft as close as possible to the various blasts (seventeen in all) to gauge the effect on airframe, engines and electronics. The story here makes for sobering reading:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-spac ... t-2769219/

So then a bit of digging into the record cards unearthed two F-84Fs detached from Wright-Patterson AFB in 1956 in support of Redwing: it would appear that they were shipped to Eniwetok aboard the USS Curtis, along with F-101 s/n 53-2445 (photos of the latter being unloaded are held by the National Archives).

51-17075 was an F-84F-35, delivered to the Eglin Air Proving Ground on 21 June 1954. Its record card shows it (designated JF-84F) assigned to 4930th Support Gp at Eniwetok from 1 April thru 21 August 1956 (placed in storage 22 July thru 25 July), at which time it returned to Wright Patterson. This aircraft later served with the 3600th Combat Crew Training Wing at Luke AFB before being retired to Davis Monthan in July 1958; it was authorised for scrapping there in March 1959.

But of much greater interest was s/n 51-1350, an F-84F-1-RE delivered new to the 6510th Air Base Wing at Edwards AFB on 14 April 1953. Its record card shows it (designated JF-84F) assigned to 4930th Support Gp at Eniwetok from 1 April thru 6 September 1956 (placed in storage 22 July thru 25 July), at which time it returned to Wright Patterson. The same record card shows its donation ‘Class 26 School’ on 15 April 1957 with an annotation, “Don[ated] to Detachment #295 Univ of Louisville, Louisville, KY per Dir 7-3753 – 12 Sep’57”. It was moved by helicopter to Trooper Island (part of Dale Hollow Lake boy’s camp) in Livingston, on the Kentucky/Tennessee border in January 1971, and according to Google Maps (and this thread), is still there.

So two questions:

1. It must be safe, surely?
2. Why were the markings removed for Operation Redwing?

Oh and number 3 - is someone going to make sure that this rather unusual and historic airframe is preserved?

[JohnB]

The markings question is an easy one...
Any dark markings...titles (USAF, serials, etc) or the blue or red parts of the star and bar emblem would not reflect heat of a nuclear blast, possibly damaging the airframe.

In the old SAC scheme of bombers having white undersides, markings were deleted on white painted areas because of this. In their later years, the white finish covered not just the bottom of the fuselage, but went far up the sides.

Also, you'll note many white bottom B-47s even deleted the star and bars from the fuselage.

It wasn't just SAC, in the UK, the red and blue portions of RAF roundels on some nuclear capable bombers were replaced with a lighter, pastel colour.

[Chris Brame]

From the Kentucky State Police Facebook page:


Photo from 2019; the lady is showing her age:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnap ... otostream/

[quemerford]

It's aircraft like this that really float my boat. Rescued, restored in her "Redwing" configuration and displayed with some insightful information boards and related exhibits to show what folks went through in a Cold War that wasn't all shooting.

I sincerely hope that is her fate; almost worse would be to see her rescued and painted in some generic camouflage scheme and with her history lost.