Ground Support Equipment in Aviation Museums

[Airlift48]

We only have an old 1960's TD-25 baggage tractor. It pulls the C-54 with no issues, but it struggles to pull the C-97 a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2H6lA7iYHM

[wendovertom]

So this is a recent donation - 1950s era cold weather engine heat unit!




Tom P.

[Noha307]

Cool stuff guys! Thanks for posting!

I found some more ground vehicles at NMUSAF, although, again, I don't know if they all technically qualify as GSE:

GSE at the NMUSAF

• MJ-1 Lift Truck - received from the Flightline Support Equipment Branch at Kelly Air Force Base in 1991
  
• M5 Bomb Trailer
  
• Clarkair Crawler Model CA-1 Tractor - Donated by museum members of the 876th Airborne Engineer Aviation Battalion Reunion Association, restored for museum by the Clark Equipment Company.
  
• Cleveland Tractor Co. Medium M2 Tractor - delivered to the Army Ordnance Department in November 1942, acquired by museum in 1990
  
• Ford Model T Ambulance - Acquired from and restored by Vintage Aviation Services Incorporated
  
• R-1 Rescue All Terrain Transport (RATT)
  
• Cadillac Gage V-100 (XM706E2) Commando
  
• AN/MSR-1 (“Misery”) Communications Intercept Van
  
• TACP Radio Jeep - restored, fitted with radio equipment and donated to the museum by the Mosquito Association in 2001
  
• Willys Quarter-ton Jeep - built in 1952, transferred to museum in 1963, painted as 2035881?
  

[Noha307]

A quick note: While reading through the Carolinas Aviation Museum's newsletters, I noted that in December 1992 they were donated a Clark aircraft tug & A G.E. aircraft 24-volt portable generator by Hoechst Celanese Corporation and in July 1993 they acquired a Dodge fuel truck & a Coleman tow tractor.

[Noha307]

Another quickie: The RAAF Museum acquired a Trident Mk 6 Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting Truck in October 2010. The page also notes that "a wide variety of support vehicles held by the RAAF Museum", although there does not seem to be any more information about them on the museum's website.

[Noha307]

A third quickie: The Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum lists an AC42/32 aircraft tug in their collection. It may or may not be the Harlan tug pictured in this news report at 0:51 in the video.

[Noha307]

I found two more tugs in the aircraft tugs category on Wikimedia Commons. One was added since I last looked and the other I must have missed.

Chrysler Unknown at the Arkansas Air & Military Museum


Clark AT at the Combat Air Museum

[therealJR]

another one is the WWII vintage propeller trailer. There is one at the VFM that I'm pondering restoring. Also we have an MD3 that we started on. It will be a 1:1 scale diorama with Special Kay.

[Tulio]

Here's one, for cloning and restoration.


Saludos,


Tulio

Attachments

[shrike]

Here's one, for cloning and restoration.


Saludos,


Tulio

You just can't find good Aurochs parts anymore

[Noha307]

I found a Clarktor tag on picssr (apparently a site that pulls from Flickr) that had a bunch of pictures - including at least a few from aviation museums that I had not seen before. The majority of the pictures came from a single Flickr account named "Old Joseph" that seems to be dedicated to Clarktor tugs. It is by far the best source of Clark related photos I have come across thus far. Anyway, here are a few of the discoveries from both of the above:

Yankee Air Museum

• Clarktor 6 - #1
  
• Clarktor 6 - #3
  
• Clarktor CT-120 - #4
  
• Clarktor CT-120 - #5
  
• Ground Starter - #7
  
• Clarktor 6 - #9
  
• Ford BNO-40 - Tug #64, owned and restored by Jim and Laura Gautz of Dexter, Michigan.
  

Koude Oorlog Museum

• CJ-10A - Built in 1986 and used at Spanghdalem Airport in Germany.
  
• Clarktor 40 - Built in 1956 and used by the Royal Air Force.
  

Clarkat B at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum


Clarktor 6 at the Westfield Aviation Museum - Apparently on loan to the museum.


Clarktor CT-21 with the Commemorative Air Force Highland Lakes Squadron


Clarktor CT-40 with the South Carolina Historic Aviation Foundation

[Noha307]

The man behind the "Old Joseph" Flicker account seems to be Joe Swelnis, who is apparently the number one expert on old Clark equipment. I found a few more pictures from his Flickr account:

FCT-120 at the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum


Clarktor with the Commemorative Air Force Highland Lakes Squadron


Clarktor 75 or 80 with the Commemorative Air Force Highland Lakes Squadron

[Noha307]

I found another one, what appears to be a Clarktor at the National WASP WWII Museum:

[Noha307]

First off, I happened across an unfortunate report from the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety about a volunteer who died after falling off an aircraft tug. It appears to have happened at the Yankee Air Museum given that the report notes it happened in Michigan and the yellow tug in the picture matches the yellow tugs from YAM above.

Coleman Unknown at the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center - marked as "77L 344"


MD-3 at the Pima Air & Space Museum


Cletrac M2 at the Imperial War Museum Duxford


While technically a "transport" and not an "aviation" museum, I believe the National Transport & Toy Museum still fits here:
GSE at the National Transport & Toy Museum

• Belt Loaders
• 1988 Daihatsu Delta V57PWS
• 1970s Hastings-Deering Air Stairs
• Kairangi Tow Tractor
• Mercury 8330
  
• Unknown Tug - previously used by Air New Zealand, marked as "10004500" and "??053", possibly the Kairangi Tow Tractor above
  
• Unknown Tug - seen to the left of the tug in the above entry, possibly the Kairangi Tow Tractor above
  
• Unknown Tug - marked as "Southern DC3", possibly the Kairangi Tow Tractor above
  

[Noha307]

Apparently, the tugs Pima uses to move their aircraft are painted like animals. They have a giraffe tug...

and a zebra tug...


The Swiss Museum of Transport has an aircraft tug on display:


Again, another not strictly aviation museum, Battleship Memorial Park has a yellow painted tug on display: