Warbird Information Exchange

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Kevin McCartney

So sad to see this. Condolences to the pilots Family and the Museum. It's such a wonderful museum and provides a really immersive experience. It really is Living History.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Ahh $hitty!
I'm always so sorry to hear news like this. It hurts so bad.
My sincerest condolences to Family, friends, loved ones and community members.

Andy

Coughlin was a fantastic builder-pilot and one of the driving forces behind ORA for the past 30 years. I still remember the story from the 1990s, I think it was in Sport Aviation, about all the research he did to come up with the most accurate Fokker D.VIII replica then possible. He seemed like a good guy as well. He also built the beautiful Sopwith Pup that ORA operated for a few years and then traded to Owl's Head to get Dick King's original (replica) Pup back.

Here is a video interview from earlier this summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBh30PLzYJ0

August

We were there three weekends ago. Watched him fly the Fokker DVIII and had a nice conversation with him well after the show and after we took the final ride of the day in their New Standard. He was just hanging around talking to stragglers (us) and watching one of his friends fly his (Coughlin's) Triplane. Seemed like a really nice guy.

The sad thing is whatever the problem was he didn't make it back to the field, where he'd have had a chance. One thing I noted during the show is how close all of the performers stayed to the airstrip - they did a tremendous job of managing energy, height, and distance to remain within gliding distance. And they need to, because the area immediately surrounding the field doesn't have many good off-field landing options and some of those engines are old, old technology with a TBO (or probably MBTF) that is scary short.