Hey Steve,
Thanks for posting the photos. Cool stuff.
Douglas was where many ex Navy C-45's went for a screw worm eradication project back in the 1970's. I purchased one each UC-45J and an RC-45J from the Pima Air Museum both of which were flown to Douglas for that project. It turns out that many of the Beech's were not used in the program and the remaining aircraft were disposed of and ended up in trade schools around the country.
It looks like the Beech's in your photos were also left over from that program.
I fixed up the first RC-45J I got from Pima some 15 years ago similarly to how we are working on the Harpoon. It was so stock and original inside I just cleaned up what was there and left it as it was. Unlike the Harpoon though we didn't have to find all of the radio gear though because it was all still installed in the Beech. Amazing really that most of the radio gear in the RC-45J when it was retired from the Navy in 1972 was WWII gear (ARC-5, ARN-7, ARN-8, APN-1). Here is a web page about that Beech:
http://www.twinbeech.com/rc45j_29585.htmI recently brought back an RC-45J from the same exact squadron or Photo School in Pensacola as my first one. It also has all of the radio gear in place. Like your photos at Douglas, I am noticing a trend.


_________________
To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here
http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htmWe brought her from:

to this in 3 months:

Help us get her all the way back

All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.
Thank you!
Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'