VAC TBM honors Lost Flight 19

[wls3]

The Valiant Air Command's TBM shown in the markings of
Charles C. Taylor, Lieutenant, USNR , Flight Leader of Flight 19
lost 5 December 1945. The famous lost navigation training flight originated from NAS Ft Lauderdale
and the lost PBM search plane was from Banana River NAS, both located
a bit south of the Valiaint Air Command Museum.

Work continues on returning the TBM to flight.
Per their latest newsletter, the first test flight is
planned for February 2012.

As seen Thursday,

[mustangdriver]

Wow! I think that looks great, and it is really nice to see these men honored.

[C VEICH]

That's a great looking Avenger and a very nice tribute to what must certainly be one of the most infamous portions of Avenger history.

[lmritger]

I've always wondered why no one ever painted an Avenger as one of the Flight 19 aircraft... maybe they didn't want to stir up any bad juju, I dunno. This is long overdue, and especially meaningful as a Florida-based aircraft. Well done VAC!!!

BTW, anyone ever heard anything more about the theory that they went down in the Okefenokee Swamp?

Lynn

[RandolphB]

BTW, anyone ever heard anything more about the theory that they went down in the Okefenokee Swamp?

Lynn

The TV show I saw that explained the idea had worked out many of the details to make it at least a plausible idea. The basic idea was that gauges were read backwards for at least a time, putting them 180 degrees away from where they thought they were. Also, a flight of planes that was unaccounted for passed over the area of the night in question.

[Chappie]

Goregeous aircraft! Wow.


Chappie

[Invader26]

I notice that that beauty has the word NAVY painted on her. Is there any evidence that USN aircraft in WW2 era paint carried the word NAVY on them?

I see lots of "new" paint jobs include it but haven't seen any WW2 timescale aircraft with it..

[Jerry O'Neill]

I love the scheme and it's also a great marketing tool for the museum. They can now be the "go to" location for film crews to do segments on the "Flight 19" story!!!
Smart move!
Jerry