Warbird Information Exchange

When I was a kid, the Albany, Oregon airport had a F-86D and a drone of somesort displayed on poles right alongside Interstate 5. This was a great landmark for me as a child as I knew that I was almost home! It looks like there is an effort to display some aircraft there again!


From the Corvallis Gazette Times:

Albany might display some vintage jets

By Hasso Hering
For the Gazette-Times
*

ALBANY — Three vintage jet fighters may be on their way to Albany later this spring in pieces for display at the Municipal Airport.

The planes are surplus A-4 Skyhawks now stored at the warplane boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

Dick Ebbert, the city’s economic development director who also manages the airport, briefed the City Council on Monday.

He said the federal government, in the form of the General Services Administration, had agreed to lend the planes to Albany.

The project is the result of efforts by pilots who keep their planes at the city airport.

The government will retain title to the planes and will lend them to the state of Oregon for display in Albany, Ebbert explained.

One hangup was that the state Department of Administrative Services (DAS) wants a fee of $10,000 to accept them, but Ebbert said Albany plane owners led by Jack Kasper had offered to front that fee. In return, Ebbert proposed and the council agreed to reimburse the pilots by forgiving that much in airport rents for their planes.

Spokesman Lonn Hoklin of the DAS defended the $10,000 one-time fee. He said the department has to comply with complex federal reporting requirements as long as the city has the planes. DAS could have charged up to $5,000 per plane, so it is giving the city a break, he added.

At their own expense, the pilots also will dismantle the planes in Arizona, truck them to Albany, put them back together and paint them, Ebbert said.

According to the plan, two of the jets — without engines, avionics or landing gear — will be displayed on airport property along Interstate 5, and one will be at the entrance off Knox Butte Road.

A-4 Skyhawks were developed in the 1950s. The Navy used them until 1976, and the Marine Corps until the 1990s. Many are still in use in the air forces of other countries.

The airport once featured a display of an F86 Sabre jet of the kind flown in the Korean War. It became an Albany icon for I-5 motorists, but the government took it back in the 1970s.

It was a F-86D now at HIll AFB I think and that red missle was a Snark I think! They still have a 155mm Long Tom at the park. Geez can I have a A-4 for our airport??

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

Looks like 2 of the 3 A4 Skyhawks has arrived in Albany, Oregon for future display at the Albany airport. Here is an article from the Corvallis Gazette Times:



Planes Arrive For Display

Three A-4 Skyhawks visit the Albany airport

By Cathy Ingalls

For the Gazette-Times

ALBANY — Three A-4 Skyhawks designed in the 1950s to operate from Navy aircraft carriers will be restored and anchored to pedestals in front of the Albany Airport.

“The aircraft will be spaced up to 100 yards apart facing north so people driving by on the freeway will see what looks like three attack planes taking off one behind the other,” said Dick Ebbert, the city’s economic development director.

Ebbert, who flew F-4 phantoms with the Marine Corps in Vietnam, thought there should be a big aircraft attraction at the airport. He formed an advisory group of pilots, hangar owners and others to decide upon and then locate just the right planes to put on display.

Ebbert contacted military officials at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., to see what was available. “The base is a huge repository for all types of military aircraft,” he said.

Three planes were selected to bring to Albany. At their own expense, Dan Miltenberger and father and son Jack and Heath Kasper traveled to Tucson to bring two planes back on trailers.

The trio will return to Arizona to pick up the third plane and the wings for all three.

The planes were operational but the avionics and engines were removed to lighten them so they could be displayed “on sticks,” Ebbert said.

Two of the restored planes will be painted in the Navy’s colors and one in the colors of the Marine Corps.

Ebbert doesn’t know when the display will be ready, as work will be done by volunteers.

The A-4 Skyhawk, which replaced the A-1 Skyraider, played key roles in Vietnam, the Falklands and Yom Kippur wars. The wing on the plane was so compact it did not need to be folded for stowage on carriers, according to Web sites about the planes.

The plane was so nimble and small it soon received such nicknames as “Scooter,” “Bantam Bomber” and “Tinker Toy Bomber.”

Nearly 3,000 Skyhawks are still in service around the world, some serving on carriers.

Ebbert said no city money is involved in fixing the planes or in bringing them to Albany.

“The only thing the city is going to do is delay the lease payment start times for Dan and Heath, who have built new hangars at the airport,” he said.

Anyone wanting to help restore the planes can call Jack Casper at 503-931-1915.

IIRC, it was MACE or Matador...not a Snark. I could be wrong (but I doubt it ) I saw them in 1977.
Also, there was most of a ex-Army Sikorsky H-19 on the field. Wonder what became of it?

Good to see the F-86 got a good home.


Sure!
The DoD via AMARG gives a lot of jets to local airports...just from my [personal experiance I know of an A-6 that went to Richmond, Indiana because the airport manager was an ex-A-6 pilot (they landed at W-P and towed it to the airport), and Brownwood, Texas has a F-4 & F-111.

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.