WIX Archives

Re: Piegon Forge and Asheville

Posted by Jim on Fri May 09, 2003 09:30:55 AM

In reply top Piegon Forge and Asheville posted by Tulio on Fri May 09, 2003 12:45:16 AM


While in Greensboro, you can drive about 30 minutes South to Asheboro to the NC Aviation Museum. There's an interesting small collection at the airport, all of which are privately owned and airworthy. An airworthy B-25 is nearly finished, with the first flights expected around June.








: SIEVERSVILLE AND PIGEON FORGE, TN
:
: May 08, 2003
:
: I managed to visit today, Pigeon Forge and the Tennessee W
: arbird Museum in Sieversville.
:
: Already reported before, there is a fiberglass P-51D mount
: ed atop a pole, in front of the Dinosaur Museum, but in re
: ality is for the Veterans Memorial Museum located in the s
: ame area.
:
: The area airport in Sieversville, just a few miles down th
: e road, holds a really neat museum. Everything is sparklin
: g clean (including the restrooms), the floors are polished
: , the displays are varied and interesting. As for the airc
: raft 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 m
: y short height, to peek inside the cockpit. Engineless, an
: d seems to be heading downhill fast: both main landing gea
: r 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, C
: A
: 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 Sta
: r visible.
: B-25 Nose section, formerly owned by Paul Mantz and Fran
: k Tallman,
: ?Ripley?s Girl?
:
: Outside, a fiberglass molding for P-51D replicas; fuselage
: only. No wing forms or moldings were within the outside a
: rea.
:
: 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 Swindel
: ls, from Newport News, VA. He was a mechanic on the T-6s,
: served from 1945 ? 1947, then went to work for the Army, s
: erved in VietNam, he says that they had the C-7s and the C
: -8s (Caribou and Buffalo) and also, that little known is t
: he fact that the U.S. Army operated a squadron of PV-2 (No
: menclature??) 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, c
: laims to own a bank in Greensboro. He says he trained in T
: exas and flew B-24s in Italy during WW-II, flew 13 mission
: s and then the war ended, so he did not have to fly any mo
: re. Flew afterwards with the USAAC, and went to the Reserv
: es, retiring in 1953-54. I had the honor of meeting him,
: listen to his remembrances, and bought him lunch. I thanke
: d him for his services to our country, and I was really gl
: ad, humbled and grateful, for having met these two guys to
: day, and for having the opportunity to be able to hear the
: m talk about their lives.
:
: I?ll be in the Greensboro, NC area for a while, in case so
: meone at WIX wants something specific to be checked out.
:
: Saludos,
:
: Tulio

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