Aviation Heritage Park will soon get second jet
JIM GAINES, The Daily News,
jgaines@bgdailynews.com/783-3242
Published: January 3, 2008
The second aircraft to be displayed at the Aviation Heritage Park on Three Springs Road should be making its way to Bowling Green, in pieces on a flatbed trailer, within the next week.
Weather permitting, Coast To Coast Aircraft Recovery Inc. should deliver the F9F-5 Panther jet to a hangar at the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport on Wednesday, according to Bob Pitchford, a member of the park’s volunteer board.
It’s coming from Winona, Minn., where it sat “forlornly by the runway” of an airport after being moved from a downtown park, he said.
“I don’t know if it was a danger or an eyesore or both,” Pitchford said.
The Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Fla., gave permission for the plane’s permanent loan to Warren County; it’s still officially property of the U.S. Navy.
“Aviation Heritage Park’s mission is to tell the stories of Bowling Green area aviators, and this aircraft is a perfect fit,” park president Carroll Hildreth said in a press release. “Lt. Cmdr. John Magda flew one like this as commander of the Blue Angels, and later in combat over Korea. It has been on our wish list for some time, and we’ve found one.”
The park’s first display is U.S Air Force F4D Phantom II, tail number 550, which retired Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry of Bowling Green flew in combat over Vietnam. This second plane, a 60-year-old fighter and ground attack jet, honors Lt. Cmdr. John J. Magda Jr.
Magda, a 1940 graduate of Western Kentucky University from Oldham County, became a Navy fighter ace during World War II. He flew a Grumman F4F Wildcat off the aircraft carrier USS Hornet during the battle of Midway – the turning point of the naval war in the Pacific.
After the war, he set many speed records in new jet planes, became commander of the Navy’s Blue Angels exhibition squadron in 1950, and was one of the first pilots to fly a jet from an aircraft carrier.
Flying a Panther – the most common American jet used in Korean combat – the 33-year-old Magda was hit by ground fire, shot down and killed while leading an air strike in March 1951.
He was inducted into Western’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2006, and the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007.
The park has been looking for more artifacts to tell the stories of local aviators, Pitchford said.
“Magda’s story was one of the ones we wanted to tell the most,” he said.
The plane will probably take six to eight months to restore, but park supporters won’t really know until they get it here, Pitchford said. They don’t know what its interior looks like, but the exterior is rusted and patched, he said.
“We don’t even know if the wheels will turn,” Pitchford said. “We don’t know what the cost is going to be, but we have had several very generous donations that have been made for both the disassembly and transportation ... as well as the restoration of the Panther.”
The group is already buying new parts for it, and have permission to restore it in the Blue Angels’ royal blue and yellow color scheme, with Magda’s historic markings, he said.
“We want it to look as close as possible to an operational aircraft,” Pitchford said. “It will be the only F-9 Panther on display in Blue Angels livery anywhere.”
Warren Fiscal Court approved creation of the park in May 2006, and ground was broken less than a year later. Meanwhile, Cherry’s plane was undergoing restoration at the airport. It was towed to the site Sept. 24.
The aviation park board is on schedule with its plan to build a circular display plaza, said Phil Moore, county Parks and Recreation director. The park’s official grand opening is expected this summer.
“We’re very pleased with their progress,” Moore said.
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