Vought Kingfisher in Cuba

Wolverine · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:37 am

Thought this might catch somebody's interest.

Looks like there's a Vought Kingfisher in Cuba. I've been searching long and hard for the surviving Kingfishers but never heard about this one until today... like five minutes ago.

Anyone know more about it than me? (all I know is that there's one in Cuba and that it exists without floats) I'm particularly interested in the registration information, serial number, and that stuff.

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:49 am

I am a fan of the Kinfisher as well. I have seen the one at the NASM and the one on the U.S.S. north carolina. I am planning a trip down to the Naval Museum in Pensacola to see that one as well. I think there is one at Chino awaiting restoration as well.

Mark Nankivil · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:02 am

and there is/was one at the USS Alabama museum in Mobile. It sustained a lot of damage from one of the hurricanes two years ago (Ivan?).

HTH! Mark

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:34 pm

Been here before:

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... php?t=9994

There has been progress on the first airframe at Wangaratta, but it's still a long way from flying.

The Cuban example has only ever been referred to as 'Navy 50' as far as I'm aware. There's a listing of the 11 airframes in the Warbirds Directory 4th Ed.

Steve T · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 8:13 pm

Calling MacHarvard!

Doug will have seen this Kingfisher on one or more of his visits to Cuba. At one point I was possibly going to be doing a painting of a Cuban OS2U for a book jacket (course I really wanted to do a Fury, instead...)

S.

coldaffyduck · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:16 pm

I have seen on Fighter Factory's website (http://www.fighterfactory.com/for-trade.php) that they are looking for parts for a Kingfisher. Do they might possibly have one that they are working on somewhere?

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:31 pm

coldaffyduck wrote:

I have seen on Fighter Factory's website (http://www.fighterfactory.com/for-trade.php) that they are looking for parts for a Kingfisher. Do they might possibly have one that they are working on somewhere?

That'll be one of the airframes at Precision Aerospace, Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia. A number of other Fighter Factory restorations are also underway there.

coldaffyduck · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:35 pm

Have they started working on it yet? Any pictures/website available to see progress on all the projects?

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:49 pm

coldaffyduck wrote:

Have they started working on it yet?

One of the project fuselages is well underway. Which one I can't say, but we should see several Kingfishers appear from the workshop in time.

coldaffyduck wrote:

Any pictures/website available to see progress on all the projects?

Unfortunately, the team had some visitors abuse the 'open workshop' and museum approach that they'd taken, so now the shop is closed to visitors and for official visits the request is made not to post photographs. There is no website for Precision that I'm aware of.

Regards,

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:45 pm

Quoting (with minor corrections) from a letter I sent to Air Classics a few years ago:

Quote:

According to John Dorschner and Roberto Fabrizio's book The Winds of December, in early 1958 Fidel Castro's rebels got hold of a Cuban Navy Kingfisher landplane that had force-landed with engine trouble.

After it was repaired, pilot Luis Silva flew the plane to the army cuartel at La Maya, Oriente province, and dropped two homemade napalm bombs, then strafed the base with the plane's single .30-cal weapon. This caused little damage but was a morale booster for the rebels.

This plane may be the one on display at the Museum of the Revolution in Havana. The authors did make one mistake - they call the aircraft a "King-Fischer!"

Dan K · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:28 pm

JDK wrote:

There is no website for Precision that I'm aware of.

http://www.angelfire.com/anime/xvortx/p ... entory.htm

JDK · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:39 am

Dan K wrote:

JDK wrote:

There is no website for Precision that I'm aware of.

http://www.angelfire.com/anime/xvortx/p ... entory.htm

well found.

But I think that's a very old one. Certainly there's a lot more going on at the (also - new) address than the website refers to.

There's at least one poster here who has a better insight to PA's work.

PeterA · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:18 am

Here are a couple of Kingfishers I have captured in recent times in Chile and Cuba.

PeterA

RareBear · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:28 pm

Photo on Airliners.net:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1156452/M/

Walt

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