tornado of 1979

[whistlingdeath77]

I'm sure this thread will peak the interest of some New Englanders from back in 1979 when a full blown tornado touched down in windsor locks, ct. In the path of that tornado was the Bradley air musuem,( New England air musuem.) Most of the museum was an outdoor exibit meaning the storm picked up vintage aircraft and threw them on their backs like they didn't weigh a thing. I'm sure lots of you remember this terrible disaster and seen first hand how the b-17, b-29, b-25 and others were damaged badly. I remember back in the 80's i used to play on the b-29 and the b-17,( which was cut in half.) Now that B-17 is the Liberty Belle and looks wonderfull. There is still aircraft outside sitting there, scared by the storm some 31 years ago. Does anybody have any stories of seeing the planes destroyed and how they put the museum back together?

[Garth]

I was in 3rd grade and we were about to move from Pennsylvania to CT, and flew into Bradley for a househunting trip a few days after the tornado hit. I remember pretty well the pilot telling us to look out the window, and seeing the planes torn apart and scattered everywhere.

[whistlingdeath77]

I was in 3rd grade and we were about to move from Pennsylvania to CT, and flew into Bradley for a househunting trip a few days after the tornado hit. I remember pretty well the pilot telling us to look out the window, and seeing the planes torn apart and scattered everywhere.

yeah. it must have been a terrible site

[John Dupre]

I remember seeing news reports but somehow never visited the museum until after it moved to the current site on the other side of the airport. For years the road down to the new museum was lined with broken aircraft from the storm and other wrecks were stored around the site. It was actually pretty interesting see the power of nature revealed in the wreckage.

A friend I met years later was a volunteer at the time and claims to be one of two men ever to walk on the underside of a C-131 as they rigged lines to pull the wreck right side up.

The silver lining in the storm is that it forced what was a pretty electic collection without a strong theme to really focus on its by now obvious mission of New England aviation history. Deciding to sell many of the wrecks helped to clean up the site and bring in cash and trade aircraft to refine the collection.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Except for the large transports, most of the damaged aircraft have been replaced.
They now have more aircraft than they did before the tornado. I was at the University of CT at the time and I took a photo of the orange sky right as the same storm was passing us. I was a member of the museum, but didn't know at the time that the museum was hit.
About six months later, Walter Soplata came out and was crawling through the wreak of the C-124 salvaging stuff.
The last two badly damaged aircraft were finally scrapped this past summer. The two F-102's from the CT ANG.
The tornado did actually force the museum to move forward and when Michael Speciale was hired as director in 1985, the museum hasn't stopped growing!
Jerry

[old iron]

Is there a list of aircraft that were completely destroyed by the tornado?

I remember that there was an original 1909 hang glider that was entirely lost - one stick from it was later found.

[whistlingdeath77]

there is a list somewhere yes. Members at the time would be able to tell you just off the top of their heads. The F4U-4 they have has a dent in the left leading edge of the wing. I always wondered if that happened in '79. The original ww2 hanger had to be torn down due to the damage as well. My father was working at Choice Ven when the storm hit. It was a factory across the street from Bradley. While he was working with others they could feel heavy pressure in their ears. It was the storm changing the air outside. He said when he looked outside it was night out.......not right. The electricity went out right after. Something you see in the movies, not at Bradley airport. They then heard a massive rumbling noise outside which started to shake the roof. The deafening noise became a monster that destroyed anything in it's path, and in it's path was Choice-Ven. Like peeling a tin can apart, the roof came off within seconds. My father was never so scared in his life he said.

[whistlingdeath77]

[Tiger Tim]

What terrible carnage but somehow the B-47 proved itself tornado-proof. Go figure.

-Tim

[Steve Nelson]

I was just recently reading an old Air Classics article about the storm.

IIRC, the C-133 was a total loss, and I seem to remember hearing about a Feisler Storch (may have been another type) that was sucked out of the building by being "strained" through the rafters.

SN

[Dave Lindauer]

I was a kid from Simsbury teaching school in Granby at the time, not far from Windsor locks. I was pretty typical of a lots museum members, visiting the museum fairly frequently and in prior years attending some great lectures/panel discussions run by then president (I think) Bob Stepanek.

On the afternoon of the storm I left school after the kids had gone home in really heavy rains and incredibly dark skies. My Spitfire (Triumph!) almost floated away a couple of times. Little did I know at the time how much worse things were over at Bradley Field.

The next (??) day I went to the outdoor exhibit site, using my museum membership card to get through police roadblocks, to help in any way I could. We pulled the semi-flattened fences back up (using a chain and a pickup, as I recall correctly) to help secure the site and I helping get various parts of airplanes back inside the fence. I was a warbirds fan who didn't pay much attention to airliners, but I was particularly struck by the sad sight of the Constellation lying on its back.

[TimAPNY]

Is the nose of the C-133 still in the back lot? The B-47 did much better than the rest but I remember it having damage.

I went to the museum in the mid to late 80's and at the time there were lots of damage aircraft on display still. But the last time I was there I was truly impressed with the progress. The B-29 is unbelievable!

Tim

[Jerry O'Neill]

From memory:
C-124
C-119
C-133
CT-31
Connie
Albatros
2 F-102's (one was on display at the Ramada Inn about where the Tornado first touched down)
F4D Skyray
Boeing Vertol,
A4 Skyhawk
Mohave
H-55
F-86H
F-8 Crusader
RF-84
I think an S-55 was outside and destroyed too.

In the hangar display, which lost it's roof, most aircraft received various amounts of damage from little to minor.
The 1090 Bleriot was damaged but it was still all there and restored.
The replica Chanute Hang Glider was a total loss.

Many other aircraft had severe to moderate damage and were kept. B-17, B-25H, B-29, SP2H, E1B, Avenger, F-89, B-57, F-104, Hound Dog,
The B-47's right inboard pylon was twisted and a spare found but never repaired. Sent to Hill AFB in the 1990's.
Tim, the C-133 nose was still there last summer, but they were doing a clean up and it may be gone.
I will try to think of more.
Jerry

[Cherrybomber13]

I saw the remains of the storm damaged airframes before they were disposed of.
To be totally honest there want much to work with and the magnesium skins
had disintegrated. We were lucky to have the opportunity to grab the S-60 when we did.
Being deeply involved with a restoration and restoration based museum I can tell you that
A) You can't save every scrap B) Some items can't be given away and have to by contract
either be destroyed or returned and not sold/given to the open market.
The B-29 and the Piasecki H-25's are in storage, and have NOT been disposed of.

That said...

[Invader26]

That B-29 is going to take some work to get flying again....