Anybody know what happened to this plane? P-80A, 44-84997

[ALOHADAVE]

Anybody know what happened to this plane?
P-80A, 44-84997
side number PN-997
It does not show up on Aerial Visuals or Forgotten jets web sites

Last edited by ALOHADAVE on Wed Jun 14, 2017 9:30 am, edited 2 times in total.

[Chris Brame]

It's P-80A 44-84997; this is from an archived version of the Forgotten Jets site:

Not much info on it - where and when was your photo taken?

[JohnB]

Here's a hint...
If the photo is too bad to make out details of a type and the serial can't be seen, look at the Buzz number on the fuselage.

In this case "PN" (FN-post 1947) means F-80. If it was a T-33, it would have been "TR".

[ALOHADAVE]

The P-80 was last seen at Sampson AFB in 1951. Sampson Air Force Base was a Basic Training base that closed in 1956, located Geneva NY. Most of the former base is abandoned.

[Chris Brame]

997 postcard on eBay:


Reading up on Sampson on the Abandoned Airfields site, there's no mention of the P-80 (you might want to pass the photo along to them), but they did have something else interesting:

Per Baugher, RP-63G 45-57295 is on display at Lackland AFB.
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NY/Air ... htm#seneca
Anyone have a better shot of the Kingcobra at Sampson?

EDIT: One more Sampson bird, just for fun:

[JohnB]

I've never heard of the place...sure it's before my time but still, as a basic training base, you'd think it would be better known.

Looks like it was used in the Korean-era buildup?

[ALOHADAVE]

Anybody live near there? Maybe the P-80 is abandoned in the weeds there somewhere.
I love the B-25 paint job.
Thanks for the responses

[4RG.I.'S]

Google earth shows a couple of aircraft at the Sampson Navy Memorial Museum including one Lockheed jet...

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Samps ... -76.891325

Thought it might be this one but it looks to be a T-33A per the excellent resource Million Monkey Theater:

http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/T-33.html

T-33A-1-LO s/n 51-8604
*Was preserved in Atmore, AL.
*Currently preserved in Sampson State Park in Romulus, NY.

[mike furline]

Reading up on Sampson on the Abandoned Airfields site, there's no mention of the P-80 (you might want to pass the photo along to them), but they did have something else interesting:

Per Baugher, RP-63G 45-57295 is on display at Lackland AFB.
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NY/Air ... htm#seneca
Anyone have a better shot of the Kingcobra at Sampson?

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p39-p63r ... 57295.html