Warbird Information Exchange

We talked about this plane a while back.

To refresh....when I was in Iceland a couple years back working an MIA case in Greenland, this Skyraider was island hopping back to the states from France. Our CG photographer took some good pics, this is one of them. Appearantly this plane was seized by the Feds upon arrival in the States. Does anyone have an update on this? Is it still locked up?

Thanks....John

Well I didn't have an update until I googled after your query tonight Coastie. Surprised me! There was a development on a local level here where a lawsuit was filed back in April regarding the Claude Hendrickson bird.
http://www.ultimatelakehouston.com/stor ... finalFrame

Thanks for the question!!!

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DBF

So am I reading this right? This was not a case of the government just being a pain. That they were told that they could not import the aircraft, and they just did it anyway?

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Looks to me like Claude Hendrickson and a company, Dixie Equipment, LLC, hired a third party to arrange the importation of the Skyraider. The government denied the import permit, and this third party company failed to tell Hendricksen that the permit was denied. Hendricksen went ahead with the import process, and was intercepted by the government, the plane seized and Hendricksen's son put under investigation.

Walt

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If God had intended airplane engines to have horizontally-opposed cylinders, Pratt & Whitney would have built them that way.

so, where is the plane now?

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Thanks for the update. I remember talking to the ferry pilot in Iceland while we all were waiting for the weather to clear up. He was there waiting a couple, three days maybe. He said he (they??) had to ship the weaps back seperately as it was illegal to have them installed on the aircraft when entering the U.S. Hence the 100mph tape on the leading edges of the wings. The pilot said he does alot of vintage aircraft ferrying. Said he recently got checked out on a tri-wing for a ferry flight somewhere. Sounds like he has a pretty good gig.

Tonight Shepherd Smith on Fox News said that the airplane has been confiscated by the govt and is bound "for a naval museum". There was a pic of the 4 cannon laying on a concrete floor. Darn.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Fox News just reported that a judge ruled against Claude and the airplane is going to the Naval Museum in Pensacola. I haven't been able to find it on the web yet.

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Bill Gorin
Vintage Flying Museum
http://www.vintageflyingmuseum.org
https://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=57513906106

A real tragedy if the Naval Museum in P-Cola gets it IMO. They don't have any skin in this game yet get to reap the benefits. If it going to be seized (stolen?) by the govt, then it should be offered for public auction like other seized aircraft, cars, boats, etc. Maybe someone is willing to file a suit over this to allow it to go to public auction.

I just found this a second ago. Here's the blog for it.

http://www.savetheskyraider.com/site/Welcome.html

Yes, I saw the FOX News item that said it was off to the Navy Air Museum....

Sad day in many ways however you'd better not make false declarations to a Govt body....

Sad and frustrating to see this one grounded but atleast it is going to Pensacola rather than being "demilled" and turned into soup cans.

Would have been nice to see cooler heads prevail and chalk it up as a big misunderstanding.

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Sounds like one party knew the government said no, but neglected to inform the 3rd party

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

Just to put a rest to the government is stealing it thing, their import paperwork was denied, and they tried to bring it anyway. Oh yeah with operating cannons. I'd rather see it go to NMNA then cut up

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I knew somehow the navy would eventually be involved

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

As I just read some reports online about this....they were told it was approved to bring it in. Some of the paperwork may have been filled out incorrectly causing a problem. That needs to be confirmed though.

Operating cannons?? Say what?? When I was checking it out in Iceland during the hop, there were no cannons or guns on it. The ports had 100mph tape on them. You can see it in the pic above. The pilot said they had to be shipped back seperately as it was illegal to bring them into the states installed.