I would like to ask who else, besides me, grew up falling in love with warbirds partly because of a father’s, grandfather’s, or uncle’s old photo albums on a family bookshelf, along with some derelicts pictured in old aviation periodicals?
My dad’s albums got me hooked on World War II aircraft, and some of his late 60’s era magazines really got me intrigued about what old derelict warbirds might be out there just waiting to be rescued by someone with an interest.
Here’s some that most come to mind:
An unidentified B-17F named “Sad Sack” (spelling?) landing at Pyote, TX in the summer 1944 with my dad at the controls. My father had been a gunner on 50 missions out of North Africa and Italy between July 1943 and March 1944. The second half of those missions was as a top turret gunner/engineer and he was trained in how to bring home and land the Fortress in case the pilots were shot up. At Pyote after his return to the States he got further training along those lines flying as engineer for Base Flight. I have a growing list of the B-17s that flew at Pyote in 1944 but this one’s i.d. is still a mystery.
In 1946 my dad got his pilot's license at Prescott, AZ and built up a lot of hours in various types including ferry flights in two AT-21’s and a short hop with a P-63 out of Kingman to Prescott, AZ (not Tucker’s). This AT-21 also is unidentified, though it might be NX25663.
He helped Charles Tucker’s brother clip the wings on the two P-63 racers being prepped for Cleveland. This photo is either NX63231, that became race #30, or the one with even shorter wings, NX62995, the #28 pylon racer.
A ferry pilot brought into Prescott, one stormy day in ’46, Jackie Cochran’s freshly surplused P-51B-15-NA, 43-24760, NX28388. My dad was initially going to ferry it (with Charlie Tucker’s recommendation, and about an hour of his cockpit familiarization drills) the rest of the way to Long Beach. He taxied it a good bit, and made a high speed run down the runway but evening settled in and it was recommended he wait for morning. The next morning Long Beach was fogged in. About the time the fog lifted a call came in that another ferry pilot was enroute having been sent by Jackie. My father never did get to fly a Mustang though one was offered about 20 years later in Aurora, Oregon.
When I was about 1 year old we lived in Riverside, CA and this P-40N, N1197N at Flabob was for sale for $800. Dad thought seriously about buying it but my sister was due to be born and the money available would not afford both. This is the same Kittyhawk Mk. IV, RCAF 858, 42-105192, that Ed Maloney’s Air Museum got in 1960 and is today registered N85104. Walter Brockin’s name appeared under the canopy on the left side as revealed in one of my dad’s other snapshots..
One day dad gave me, a 12-yr. old, too young to handle what he was about to see, a copy of Sport Flying magazine, March 1968. On page 40 in an article by Robert William O’Hara called “Elephant’s Burial Ground” and this caption under the photo (this is a poor photocopy) taken by Walter F. Gemeinhardt, “Sitting since the close of WW-II, this F4U-1 is just about 100 percent all there and waiting to be discovered. The owner isn’t ready to sell yet, but who knows what tomorrow may bring?” Oh., they just had to say that…!!!
(This was BuNo. 17995 that sat around Provo, Utah in various places between 1943 and about 1967.)
My grandfather lived in Van Nuys and we flew in there often from Merced. I always marveled at the derelict P-63A-6, 42-69021 there that owner Ken Kay originally had Bill Lear, Jr. bring in, and he and George Husband occasionally had flown it in 1947. It was sitting thoroughly neglected in plain view every time we were there in the early/mid 60’s. I got to climb around on it occasionally but my dad never took a photo. I loved that airplane but the family thought I was nuts. Then one day dad brought home a copy of AIRWAYS magazine, April 1969, Volume 3, No.4. On pages 52-53 these two photos appeared (no credits or author for the article) further begging at me to go get my Cobra! But alas, Frank Borman was far better financially equipped and today at least it resides in my home state of Idaho with John Bagley. Maybe there’s another out there somewhere…
On November 13, 1969 my father was in Blythe,CA and asked Bob Bean for a job. Bean didn’t need him, except to make one post-mechanical overhaul test hop, in a dirty silver twin on the field. My dad got to fly his dream, a P-38L, N9005R that day, allowing Bean to sign it off and make delivery to Bill Ross. I have a few photos of Bean’s aircraft taken that day, some Corsairs, and two P-38’s on the field. I spent hours in the following years drooling over those slides taken that November afternoon.
So, I wonder what photos in your family’s collection, or down at the airport café, that captivated your young warbird thirsty heart?
Lowell Thompson
Kellogg, Idaho
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