Post-Service Ferry Flights to Museums

[kalamazookid]

Also, didn't a Shakleton fly to Pima on a ferry permit not too long ago? Seems like it was a one-off flight, maybe from the CAF?
Or am I crazy?
kevin

It was ferried to Pima in December 2007.

[raconnel]

It was ferried to Pima in December 2007.

Like he said, not too long ago.

[wendovertom]

I would LOVED to see the B-47 flight! I'll bet that was quite an experience for whoever got to make that final flight!

Tom P.

[JohnB]

Likewise the final C-124 flight to McChord in 1986.
Somewhat surprisingly, someone realized the occasion and arranged for a series of photos to be taken with the 62nd's current aircraft, a C-141, over the Cascade mountains.

The NMUSAF had large backlit transparent copies of the shots in the hall between the (then) two buildings for a few years.

[Noha307]

There was also a YC-125 that was being flown to the Air Force Museum but lost on its ferry flight.

I just happened across a similar case. TB-26B, 44-34156, was written off in a crash landing on 17 August 1985. Some sources state it crashed while being delivered to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, although the Aerial Visuals dossier states it was preparation for the ferry flight. Either way, I can see how this plus the crash of the YC-125, 48-634, three years later on 29 June 1988 might have started to sour the Heritage and Museums Program on aerial deliveries.

The circumstances of both cases make it clear these were aircraft that had not flown for years and, reading between the lines a bit, sound like cases of people hurriedly trying to make an aircraft airworthy so that it could be donated. If I had to guess, these might have been situations where there was a perverse incentive, such as getting rid of a junk airplane as a tax write-off, to do so. Recall that the airtanker scandal (which of course was connected to the 2002 crashes) happened at the same time as the latter accident.

[Archer]

If we're going for a list of unsuccessful ferry, or pre-ferry flights... there's:
- The CASA 2.111 being flown from Spain to the UK with Neil Williams, his wife and two crewmembers on board: https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/18545
- The Convair CV-340 ZS-BRV being prepared for ferry to The Netherlands: https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/319613

And no doubt there are other examples.