Has anyone heard about the tornado destruction at the airport near London, Kentucky?
There was a T-34 event there starting last Thursday.
My neighbor Steve attended in his T-34.
A tornado was predicted so the aircraft owners moved their planes into three different hangers, one on one side of the runway, two on the other side.
Steve put his T-34 in the one hanger while his friend put his in one of the two hangers.
Then the unthinkable happened: The tornado hit, destroying the two hangers as well as every aircraft inside. There was also at least one private jet and one helicopter destroyed.
Steve's plane, on the other side of the runway from the two destroyed hangers was spared. The hanger was not damaged and he was able to fly back here on Sunday.
The first photo shows Steve’s T-34, fully restored and fitted with a Continental IO 550 engine. He is a retired Airforce (F 111) pilot who flies it regularly.
The second photo shows his friend’s T-34. This plane was fully restored to a better-than-new condition including all-new Garmin glass avionics as well as a factory new Continental IO 550
It was virtually brand-new. I know, I saw it when he visited here a month ago.
Sadly, it was in one of the two hangers and got completely destroyed – totaled.
In total, five T 34s were destroyed and a few were damaged.
The storm was so intense that it actually lifted one of the planes up and slammed it down inverted.
As far as injuries and deaths, there were plenty.
There's a lot more to the story as can be seen on various news websites.
Bob Z.
Topic: NOT Model Aviation but a True Tragedy (Read 1183 times)