WIX Archives

Piegon Forge and Asheville

Posted by Tulio on Fri May 09, 2003 12:45:16 AM

SIEVERSVILLE AND PIGEON FORGE, TN

May 08, 2003

I managed to visit today, Pigeon Forge and the Tennessee Warbird Museum in Sieversville.

Already reported before, there is a fiberglass P-51D mounted atop a pole, in front of the Dinosaur Museum, but in reality is for the Veterans Memorial Museum located in the same area.

The area airport in Sieversville, just a few miles down the road, holds a really neat museum. Everything is sparkling clean (including the restrooms), the floors are polished, the displays are varied and interesting. As for the aircraft on display:

Outside:

Lockheed T-33-A-5-LO ??, 53-6069, ?36069?
overall bare metal, with the classic trainer scheme of the 1950s, insides of tip tanks are matte black, and the nose has the radomes in good shape. Cockpit seems intact, with both ejection seats in place; impossible for me, due to my short height, to peek inside the cockpit. Engineless, and seems to be heading downhill fast: both main landing gear oleo struts are completely deflated, making the airplane look almost as a tail-dragger.

Inside:

MiG-17M Red 1728 (Polish)
MiG-17F 1706 (Polish) Lim-5
MiG-21 Red 4007
T-33 N-307FS (two tone gray cammo)
F-86 N-50CJ (White and light blue, civilian scheme)
F4U-1A NX-83782, ?799?
TBM-3E N-4170A, ?15?
USS Carl Vinson, Marines, VMT-232
F6F-5 N-4994V, BuNo 93879, ?31? Planes of Fame, Chino, CA
P-40N 42-106396, NL-85104
P-47D-40-RA 44-90438, ?490438?, NX-647D, P.O.F.
P-47-D 44-90460, NX-9246B, ?Hun Hunter XVI?
P-38-J NX-138AM, ?Porky II?, P.O.F. Valley, AZ
T-6 / SNJ-4 N-6423D, BuNo 88-13519
SNJ-5 N-29963, BuNo 85077, ?PA?, NAVY
UH-34G 140136, possibly former VNAF, remnants of VNAF Star visible.
B-25 Nose section, formerly owned by Paul Mantz and Frank Tallman,
?Ripley?s Girl?

Outside, a fiberglass molding for P-51D replicas; fuselage only. No wing forms or moldings were within the outside area.

There was this elderly gentleman, looking intently at the airplanes, but in particular at the T-6 / SNJs.

He looked like he wanted to talk to someone, so I offered to shoot a couple of pictures of him, in front of the T-6s and offered to mail those to him. His name is Jim Swindells, from Newport News, VA. He was a mechanic on the T-6s, served from 1945 ? 1947, then went to work for the Army, served in VietNam, he says that they had the C-7s and the C-8s (Caribou and Buffalo) and also, that little known is the fact that the U.S. Army operated a squadron of PV-2 (Nomenclature??) Neptunes in VietNam, in the same role as the Navy (planting sensors on the Ho-Chi-Minh trail).

Later on, already in Asheville, NC, I met this gentleman. I did not ask for his name, but he was a retired banker, claims to own a bank in Greensboro. He says he trained in Texas and flew B-24s in Italy during WW-II, flew 13 missions and then the war ended, so he did not have to fly any more. Flew afterwards with the USAAC, and went to the Reserves, retiring in 1953-54. I had the honor of meeting him, listen to his remembrances, and bought him lunch. I thanked him for his services to our country, and I was really glad, humbled and grateful, for having met these two guys today, and for having the opportunity to be able to hear them talk about their lives.

I?ll be in the Greensboro, NC area for a while, in case someone at WIX wants something specific to be checked out.

Saludos,

Tulio

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