Airplanes at College Park Restaurant

[Buzz]

Hi, I found this forum looking for information about the jet that was at Wheaton Regional Park which I remember playing on in the 1960's and found this:

viewtopic.php?p=49659&sid=6b0bf19ee56a7106746d17b327c62fd0#49659

http://appserv.montgomerycollege.edu/ne ... p?id=10591

https://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/3790807498


There were some WWII vintage war planes at a restaurant in College Park, Md. near the airport, which aren't there anymore. Does anyone know what happened to them?

Pictures here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62345920@ ... 4054058769

[dirtysidedown430]

That resturant was one of David Tallichett Speciality Corp, 94th Aero squadron was the name of it. The airplanes that were there are fiber glass models. Years ago this guy died who made them for the movie Ind. So when you see airplanes getting blown up on ground those were models packed with fuel and fireworks stuff.FYI there was a b24 gate guard at I think Lakland AFB in Texas that the brits wanted real bad for their museum AF said fine but want replacement so David made one out fiberglass.

[Cherrybomber13]

Isn't that the same Corsair that's now at Massey Airdrome in Massey Md?

Massey Airdrome Corsair by Drew King, on Flickr

[dirtysidedown430]

I have visited the restaurant but do not member that model being there but that was years ago so might have been. If not bet it came from Davids fiberglass shop.

[Chris Brame]

The plane in the park was F7U-3M 129722; here's another photo and info courtesy millionmonkeytheater.com:

F7U-3M 129722
*Naval Air Test Center.
*11/8/1956: Struck off charge at NAS Norfolk, VA.
*Was displayed in a park in Wheaton, MD.

Last edited by Chris Brame on Mon May 25, 2015 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[dirtysidedown430]

And that has what to do with college park

[Chris Brame]

Buzz also mentioned the Cutlass at Wheaton in the first post.

[SaxMan]

I remember the restaurant and passing by it several times when I was a student at the University of Maryland I never went there to eat, though, which seems pretty inexplicable in retrospect.

On Massey's website, they do say it was purchased from one of Tallichet's restaurants. Even though the nearby town is Massey, I wonder if there is a tie in to VT-3 C.O. Lem Massey, who was killed at Midway?

As far as the F7U, it was cut up and scrapped in the late 70s / early 80s. In Montgomery County, Maryland, the parks are run by a separate quasi-governmental body, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), which has it's own independent police force to patrol those parks. I volunteer with that department and have access to all the grounds, including those off limits to the general public. I was hoping that the F7U and the FJ Fury that was over in Cabin John Regional Park were sitting in the back of one of the parks' maintenance yards somewhere, but it just isn't so, and I've looked! I've spoken to several long time Park Managers and employees who all confirmed that these planes are gone. Sigh.

[dirtysidedown430]

Oops missed that one, think that Walter s in Ohio had one of them in his yard. A f7u I mean.

[Buzz]

So the airplanes at the restaurant were models and not real planes. I thought they were real.

[JohnB]

FYI there was a b24 gate guard at I think Lakland AFB in Texas that the brits wanted real bad for their museum AF said fine but want replacement so David made one out fiberglass.

Actually, Americans and Brits wanted the real B-24 for the American Air Museum at Duxford, which honors the USAAF/USAF activities in the UK.
A good use for the airframe which finally got it out of the Texas weather and a first rate restoration.

However, I don't know whether that replica (which even has panel lines and rivet detail) was made by the same people who made them for Tallichett.

[Woodsy Airfield]

A couple of observations on the subjects here. To clarify - the Sopata Cutlass was purchased by him via DOD surplus sale - I believe from Squantum (not sure), The F7U at Cabin John (so I was told) was broken up on the spot and bulldozed with a dirt covering and that a swing set/recreation site placed over wreckage. At that time while on vacation, I too was in search of the display aircraft in the park system. Personnel at Cabin John thought that there were other displayed aircraft at Wheaton and Meadowbrook. I ultimetly found out about The F9F-8P (BuNo 144388) sitting in the yard back woods and made arrangements for the retrieval from Meadowbrook (Chevy Chase).

I managed a snapshot of the FJ-4 at Cabin John - tail coded 7W 9536...The photo was taken on July 15, 1975...I'll pass pic on to Chris Brame whom hopefully will publish on this forum...

[Lon Moer]

We had a 94th Aero Sqd restaurant out here at SJC until the mid-'90s.
Had a Red Baron Triplane on the field between the restaurant and runway and a Nieuport at the front door.

I do miss that place, they had an awesome sunday champagne brunch buffet!!

[dirtysidedown430]

ATTN. Buzz, JohnB.
David has been into warbirds most of his life. He was copilot and flew a few missions at the end of the war. He came home and married a Hilton of the hotel famly and started his rest buss. Over the years he has own close to 1000 war birds of varying condition. He does not get the respect in the warbird world because he was very aggressvie business man. And there are many horror stories out there on stuff he pulled. But he loved airplanes.

I met David back in 1990, right after he flew his 17 back from England at the end of flimming the remake of the Memphis Bell. He blew a tail wheel landing at Latrobe airshow and we had one back at BVI from repairs on 909. Which we loaned him. This started talks with David and Air Heritage and David built the hangar at BVI.

Now we start on the models, David bought a B 24 from the India AF in the late 60s. Unlike what Bob Collings bought from them which was junk that got made into the All American 24. Davids was flyable even still had ammo in the guns when they picked it up. The fight back to the states took a few years, they stop in England and it istook over a year to get it out of there. Think the brits really wanted the airplane even back then. When David got the airplane back to Chino first thing they did was used it as a mold in sections for the making of a full size model if the need for one would come along which it did for B24 at Lakland AFB so the brits could have a real one for their museum. And yes the one at Lakland is now a full size model.

[dirtysidedown430]

More to come on the model stuff. Doing all this from iPhone so sorry about typos.