GRUMMAN F9F COUGAR

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:05 pm

In the Mid to late 80s there was a Panther and Skyraider, both very stock,parked by the south east corner of Oakland Pontiac airport in Michigan owned by By a gentleman, who I believe also owned a Mustang and was killed in the crash of the Mustang.
Jack Levine
First I've heard of this, is there any place on the web to substantiate this information?
I'd like to see it too. The earlier posting said the pilot was found in the airplane. What about the pax? NTSB says cause undetermined. How about: pilot not legal for IFR, a/c not legal for IFR, flying heavy IFR at night. Oh, and toss in some thunderstorms for good measure. Sometimes the fighter pilot mentality is not good. I find it hard to beleive they actually found it.

RickH · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:16 pm

If I remember right Jack he left EFD Sunday evening after WOH. He was among the Sunday aftershow departures. Heard the next morning on the news they were missing.

Tulio · **Joined:** Mon May 03, 2004 1:05 am **Posts:** 3236

Any of you guys, knows about an F-9 that was based at the Brazoria Co. airport, in Texas?

I believe it was imported back from Argentina.

Saludos,

Tulio

airnutz · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:58 am

Or how about the Panther in the city park, downtown Kerrville by the
Guadalupe River. We played there in the mid-60's to '67...got transfered...
came back for a visit...found out some drunk idiots hacked-it with hatchets
....the city hauled it off because it was a hazard to kids. And that was that.

But with what I know now, I wonder if they gave it back to the Navy...or
did they scrap it local with/without Navy permission? HeHeHe..will the
Nav come after them T :shock:

???

Steve · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2005 7:30 am

There's another parked along I-90 in MN at a farm. Don't quote me but I think it's Bu 125434

Steve

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11324

Steve wrote:

There's another parked along I-90 in MN at a farm. Don't quote me but I think it's Bu 125434

There was a thread about this one a few years ago. I saw it in passing, but someone went and talked to the owner and took photos.

Dan K · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2005 12:55 pm

Steve Dennis visited the owner and would have the skinny on that airframe.

Another upper midwest Panther may be found on a stick in Janesville, WI. Here's to the old girl surviving another approaching winter!

Warbirdnerd · **Joined:** Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:34 pm **Posts:** 2923

Aonther one on a stick at the Brainerd, Mn. Airport, although I have no idea why....

marine air · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:49 pm

Hello everybody,
1) Howard Pardue told me his panther came from a playground. He did little if any work on it and sold it on Nelson Ezell's advice.
2) WHile TDY at NAS Key West, I saw a TF-9 Cougar at a Key West lighthouse museum around 1983. It was in very rough shape and was gone when I checked back on it in 1999. I always "assumed" that this one either ended up at Reilly's or at Harry Doans.
3) A group of warbird people went to dinner one year at Sun and Fun and I sat across from Dr Levine and his girlfriend Jill. He talked about the F9F's 600gph fuel burn at sea level and how he was worried about the engine. The one in his aircraft was on loan from a transportation museum and he said no one in the world was overhauling those old type of jet engines, like they were for the F-86 and T-33 at the time. This makes me wonder how reliable was the engine in the Whittington Cougar.
4) Just a guess on the Skyraider, Mustang, and F9F. The Mustang and Panther were Levine's and the Skyraider is the one that John Ellis picked up when he had a business called Kal-Aero. He and The Parrish's were trying to get a govt. contract in Arizona pulling target sleeves. No luck and the Kalamazoo Air Zoo ended up with the Skyraider. I think it was bare metal when they first bought it.
5) IFR capability of the Whittingtons Cougar. The flame out occured at around FL280'. It's logical to assume if they had an operable two place oxygen system, surely they had a decent instrument panel. Level 1 thunderstorms are very common in that area and are no big deal at that flight level. Also, just because the pilot didn't have his FAA required instument comp check and the airplane hadn't had proper checks doesn't mean he wasn't capable of doing whatever he chose to do back then.
6) The pilot, John Verde, I didn't remember his name, had two or three hundred missiions in Korea in the Panther. He was commisioned in the Marines after dropping out of M.I.T. engineering school. After Korea he worked as a mercenary in French Indochina flying everything the French had. The story I heard is that he was flying a Fairchild C-119 Boxcar as a mercenary in Vietnam and it was loaded with captured Viet Cong guerillas. The C-119 blew an engine and being overloaded started coming down. They discarded all the weight they could but were still descending. The Viet Cong were shackled to wooden palettes and Verde ordered them pushed out the back of the airplane!
Lighter, the airplane avoided crashing in the jungle and made it back to it's base. When I was in VMA-124, I had heard this story, but it was at the airshows later all the warbird people were telling and confirming the story. As to him flying F-4's I don't know or remember that story. There's a lot more on this guy.

mrhenniger · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:00 pm

marine air wrote:

2) WHile TDY at NAS Key West, I saw a TF-9 Cougar at a Key West lighthouse museum around 1983. It was in very rough shape and was gone when I checked back on it in 1999. I always "assumed" that this one either ended up at Reilly's or at Harry Doans.

Here is the one that is/was at Reilly's. I think it is the ex Doan machine.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/287 ... 5657bCPdvG
Is this the airframe you saw at NAS Key West?

Mike

Chad Veich · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:43 pm

Since we're talking Cougars, there is a complete photo nose F9F on a farm in Buckeye, AZ. I posted photos of it here some time back. There was also another that was sitting on a lot not too far from the old Williams AFB in Chandler, AZ. I remember this one also being discussed here at some point. This airframe has recently (within the last 6-8 months) dissappeared. Anybody know where too?

PS - For those interested in the early jets, there is also a complete T-33 on display in the ROTC compound of Agua Fria Union High School in Avondale, AZ. I've never seen this one discussed or pictured in any magazine or on the net. You won't find it by accident! I only know of its existence because I attended high school at Agua Fria. From what I recall, the airplane was donated to the school straight from Williams AFB upon retirement and has been with them ever since.

Steven M. Dennis · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:51 pm

Steve wrote:

There's another parked along I-90 in MN at a farm. Don't quote me but I think it's Bu 125434

Steve

Steve,

That's what I have for a serial number on that one too. I do have pictures of it as Brandon and Dan mentioned, as well as photos of the Panther in Janesville, and of one that is parked in the weeds at the airport in Winona, MN too. There are a lot of Panthers sitting around the Midwest rotting away........ I always liked these early Grumman kerosene burners for some reason.

Steve (also from Wisconsin)

Steve · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:55 pm

I stopped there about a year ago and took some photos it will take a while to locate them. I thought the serial #Bu 125487 N1332F was flyable. Belonging to Roger Christgau. This F9F bibn't look like it has been flyable for some time

Steve

Broken-Wrench · **Joined:** Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:37 pm **Posts:** 1197

there is also a Cougar in tuskee? Where they trained the Afro-American pilots

Tulio · **Joined:** Mon May 03, 2004 1:05 am **Posts:** 3236

Maybe this will jog somebody's memory:

One of several of my shots on this particular Cougar:

Location is Brazoria, Texas.

Saludos,

Tulio

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