Thunderscreech on display

Air Classics, Dec 2001

WARBIRD REPORT

KEEP'EM FLYING!

After decades of outdoor display on a pole at Meadows Field, Bakersfield, California, rare Republic XF-- 84H USAF s/n 51-17059 has been put on show at the USAF Museum. Created from modified Thunderstreak airframes, two XF-84Hs were built to test the concept of a turboprop fighter. The modified airframes were fitted with Allison XT40-A-1 coupled turboprops capable of 5850-- horsepower. Because the modification was so extensive, the craft was originally designated XF-106 but this was changed to XF-84H.

At around 3000 rpm, the thick propeller blades would go supersonic and this would create an almost intolerable noise - hence the nickname "Thunderscreech." The noise was said to make ground crews physically sick and only '059 flew. Test pilot Hank Baird took the craft up a dozen times and eleven of these flights ended in forced landings.

Retired, the plane was put on display in Bakersfield and was kept in quite good condition until the USAF wanted the craft back for its new exhibit on experimental vehicles. Carefully removed from its pole, the plane went to the 178th Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard whose volunteers spent over 3000 hours bringing the Thunderscreech back into display condition.

NATIONAL WARPLANE MUSEUM SHUTS DOWN

Incompetent management, poor location, and a couple of really bad airshows have caused the National Warplane Museum to shut its doors - probably permanently. Readers of this magazine will recall that the NWM had its humble beginnings in scenic Geneseo, New York, and its annual "cornfield" airshows became a highlight for all Warbird enthusiasts. Over the years, the museum grew and grew, acquiring more aircraft while the shows became bigger and better. A disagreement among some founding members caused the show to move to nearby Batavia which was a very good venue. However, a major search was instigated for a new home and considerable financial arrangements were made with local government and a splendid new museum was erected at Elmira. However, crowds never really materialized and the airshows became progressively worse. Also, the original group of organizers were muscled out by a new group who had no idea how to run an airshow or a museum. As of press time, the future of the museum's aircraft is not known but being put up for sale is a possibility. Stay tuned for details.

PASSINGS

On 20 September, David Grant died in Los Angeles at age 84. In 1947 he was a 30-year-old hydraulic engineer with no pilot license when he co-- piloted Howard Hughes HK-1 leviathan known as the Spruce Goose.

It was in 1947 that a derisive US Senator Owen J. Brewster gave the flying boat the name that stuck, accusing Hughes of pouring government money into a boondoggle that would never get off the ground.

Test flights were planned for early 1948. But Grant said he became suspicious on 2 November 1947 when Hughes invited news media and the public to observe taxi runs in Long Beach Harbor. Assigned to ride shotgun despite his lack of a license, Grant said Hughes really did not want a viable copilot "because he might interfere" and had set up the controls so that Grant really had little to do.

After a couple of test runs, Hughes had reporters get off the plane and lined up the press boats to give them a good view. "Then he casually turned to me," Grant said, "and told me to lower the flaps to 15 degrees - that's takeoff position. He shoved the throttles forward and away we went."

The plane climbed to 70 feet, and flew about that many seconds, then dropped back to a perfect water landing and thousands of cheers. "It was ecstasy all the way. It was like walking on air," Grant would later recall. "It wasn't underpowered at all, and it performed exactly like it was designed to."

Hughes' impulsive flight "wasn't much of a flight," Grant added, "but it was enough to quiet Congress down."

The plane never flew again, much to the disappointment of Grant and other team members who had spent years laboring on the craft all day and then meeting with Hughes at his home into each night. Grant often speculated that Hughes, who put the Hercules into a temperature- and humidity-controlled hangar in 1954, simply lost interest or didn't want anyone but himself to fly it and never had the time. The war had ended and a massive flying boat transport craft was no longer a priority. The restored Hercules is now on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

On 17 June, Fred Hayner, 78, died at Troy, New York. His painting decorated the noses of many fighters and bombers during World War Two. Hayner's nose art is considered some of the best produced during the war, when the artwork was a popular morale booster for pilots and aircrews. The art consisted of anything from a Vargas-style pinup girl to an illustration of a pilot's wife or girlfriend to some sort of political slogan.

Hayner went into the Army Air Force as an aircraft mechanic assigned to the 434th Fighter Squadron in England but was made the squadron's painter when his artistic talent was discovered.