HOW'S THIS FOR A SCALE MODEL AIRPLANE?

[Robert Zambelli]

On display at McEntire AFB in South Carolina, between Columbia and Sumter.

Scale is 1:1. All fiberglass.

Looks perfect.

   Bob Z.

[Bruce Shipp]

Bob, that is not fiberglass.  That is the real deal!  Likely an early 70s A model that was retired after being replaced by an updated version of the F-16.  Later versions had larger engines, larger flight and weapons computers and other improvements.  As e early versions reached theirndesigned service life they were retired.  Most retired airplanes go to Tucson, but others are used as static displays such as this one.  Other reasons a jet may end up on a stick is because it was rendered un-airworthy for some reason.  The T38 at Sheppard AFB, TX actually survived a bird strike induced dual flameout.  Both pilots ejected and the airplane landed in the front yard of a factory next to the base.  It would never fly again but looking at it now you would never know it had crashed.

With a fresh coat of paint they look great.

[Robert Zambelli]

Hi, 4-Shipp. Interesting!
I spoke to one of the base personell during an airshow a few years back and he thought that it was constructed from fiberglass.

So, when they make a display model, they gut the insides and just use the outer skins?

Great conversation piece just the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   Bob Z.
ps - On I-95 about 15 miles north of the GA/FL border, there is a B-47 Stratojet parked right next to the interstate.

[Bruce Shipp]

That's about it.  They strip anything they can use or might pse a hazard:  engines, electronics, hydraulics, etc.  it is nice to see one with the external stores.  But the  airframe is all there. 

Bruce

[Dan McEntee]

 I had read in a magazine somewhere , that over in Europe, and the warbird market expanded, and lot of the WW-2 aircraft were being bought up and being replaced with what were supposed to be fiberglass replicas. I would imagine it would be almost as hard and as expensive to build a fiberglass replica as it would to build the real thing in the same size and scale.
  It would be neat if in this day and age of computers that a listingof all the accessable gate guards could be made up so one could look for them while traveling. I know there is an F-104 Starfighter on the Will Rogers turnpike in Oklahoma, and I ran across an F-111 Ardvark in a small town in New Mexico or southe west Texas on the way to VSC one year. I the small town I live in, Florissant, MO there is a F-101 Voodoo that has been vandalized quite a bit, largely because they have it put in a spot where it isn't in plain sight. It was in Texas ANG colors when it was aquired and was a William Tell exercise winner to boot. They repainted it to look like one of the early models as it rolled of the McDonnell production line with Chief Test Pilot, Joe Dobronski's name under the canopy. There is also an F-100 and an F-15 at the entrance to what we callled "the Navy Base" at Lambert Field, and an F-4 Phantom near the offices of what's left of the local ANG unit. It's worth every penny it costs to keep these old warriors visible for future generations to see and learn about, in my opinion.
     Type at you later,
     Dan McEntee
 

[peabody]

The B-47 off of I-95 is at the Eighth Air Forde Museum......
The "Mighty Eighth" was more reknowned for the B-17's and B-24's that laid waste to Europe....
The museum is a private one, and kinda interesting....

Have fun!