Warbird Information Exchange

Did any TBD's or F2A's survive long enough to go up for sale with the RFC? (I'm not 100% certain that the RFC handled any Navy equipment or not). Or were the survivors scrapped by the Navy itself? I've certainly never seen any photos suggesting that any were ever offered for sale postwar or near the war's end.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

I don't think any TBDs were. According to "TBD Devastator Units of the US Navy," by Barrett Tillman, the last Devastator (BuNo 0325) was stricken from Navy records on 30 September 1944.

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Matt

Before that, BuNo 0356 was stricken on January 31, 1944 at the NATT in Chicago - too bad it apparently wasn't one of the many ex-Navy warbirds that went to the trade school there after the war
Coincidentally, I wonder if that's where Earl Reinert got his (alleged) F2A?

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

A search of Joe Baughers site shows about a dozen or so F2A's WFU in 1944 (Withdrawn From Use) and only one WFU in June 1945 (BuNo 1406).

Aviation Archeology site lists the last recorded F2A accident in Oct. 1943.

BuNo 1426 Delivered to US Navy 2 January 1941, Retained by Brewster for testing Assigned to NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Langley Field, VA Jul 23, 1942 to Jun 17, 1944. Assigned to NAS Norfolk, VA

While this report is dated 1947 I'm not sure when the tests were conducted.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/199 ... 082462.pdf

Some F2A's NAS Miami 43
https://www.history.navy.mil/content/hi ... 13384.html
https://www.history.navy.mil/content/hi ... 13386.html

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45-47=-2

It's worth noting that there were comparatively few of these aircraft types made, and many of those few were lost in combat. Thus it should be no surprise that the survivors would have been scrapped even before the war ended. They were obsolete types- and reminders of the time when we weren't winning. No one wanted them, and their aluminum was turned into more modern machinery.
Now, of course, it would bee good to have at least one survivor of each. So it goes!