Some "Then & Now's" ...

[Mark Allen M]

Got a bunch of these if anyone is interested. Kind of a neat thing of sorts. Some may even be the same aircraft and some are different aircraft in similar positions of flight or grounded.

A couple of Grumman Avengers in flight (not the same aircraft)


Then: Grumman TBF Avenger #469. Not yet assigned to a US Navy torpedo Squadron c 1944.


Now: General Motors-built Avenger TBM-3E, Bureau Number 85849, took to the skies again on October 21, 2016 after a thorough restoration by the experts at Pacific Fighters of Idaho Falls, Idaho. It is now proudly owned and operated by the Erickson Aircraft Collection in Madras, Oregon.

Last edited by Mark Allen M on Wed Jun 19, 2024 6:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Mark Allen M]

Then: SBD-6 Dauntless scout bomber of Marine Squadron VMSB-231 in flight over the Pacific, 1944. Note the ASB Radar antenna under the wing and the mission markings indicating 85 bombing missions.


Now: The Commemorative Air Force’s Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless. Based at the Dixie Wing. (photo by Richard Mallory Allnutt June 18 2005)

[Mark Allen M]

Then: FM-2 Wildcat "White-8" awaiting catapulting from CVF 30 USS Charger Nov 1943.


Now: FM-2 Wildcat, The Military Aviation Museum (MAM) Warbirds over the Beach 2019, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
"The Museum’s FM-2 received its first assignment to San Pedro, California in April 1944, having been built just a short time earlier at the General Motors Eastern Aircraft Division plant in Linden, New Jersey. It was then assigned to the South Pacific during the summer of 1944, before returning to San Diego and eventually becoming part of a training unit in Florida. In July 1945, a short time before the end of the war, the airplane was assigned to Naval Auxiliary Air Station Pungo in Virginia Beach, just 4 miles north of the Museum".
https://www.militaryaviationmuseum.org/ ... 2-wildcat/