The Air Force Museum Dayton, Ohio

[Wyandot Jim]

In 1989 we went to the NASM restoration facility in Silver Hill.
They were working on the Enola Gay at that time.
When at Son's house North of Ft Worth we see FIFI fly at times since it is now located in Ft Worth.
While at Silver Hill I got to see my first FW-190A that they had just finished.

 

[Snake45]

In 1989 we went to the NASM restoration facility in Silver Hill.
They were working on the Enola Gay at that time.
When at Son's house North of Ft Worth we see FIFI fly at times since it is now located in Ft Worth.
While at Silver Hill I got to see my first FW-190A that they had just finished.

Yah, they worked on Enola Gay for years.

If I'm not mistaken, NASM's FW190 is actually the lesser-known F model, which was optimized for ground attack. Visually it's virtually identical to the late As, though (A-7, A-8).

Sometime during my stint at TAB Books, I attended the dedication/naming ceremony of Silver Hill as the Paul E. Garber facility as the guest of one of my authors, Jim Greenwood, Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs at Gates Learjet. Paul Garber spoke and his story was fascinating. Sadly, this was at the height of my drinking days (somewhere in the 1981-83 timeframe) and I don't remember too much of what he said. There were a LOT of Very Important Airplane People there and my friend, Jim Greenwood, seemed to know quite a few of them. I'm sure I shook several famous hands that night but the only name I remember is Scott Crossfield.

When I visited the Garber shop in the '90s, they had just finished the restoration of the Arado AR 234 jet bomber. I got a real close-up look in the cockpit. In the actual shop they were working on the Japanese Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka. It was on, basically, sawhorses on the shop floor and I got to look in the VERY basic cockpit of that thing, too. The whole project reminded me of a homebuilt fiberglass submarine that my Junior High drafting teacher was building in the back of his classroom about 1968. It also struck me that almost any reasonably skilled home craftsman/woodworker could build a VERY accurate (nonfunctional, of course) full-scale replica of the Okha in a home garage, and wouldn't have all that much money in the project, either. It would be a fun "ride" for neighborhood kids. If I had more energy and less ADD, I'd build one myself.

Remind me to tell you my Betty Jo story sometime. I've dropped enough names for one post.

 

[Snake45]

Remind me to tell you my Betty Jo story sometime. I've dropped enough names for one post.

Wyandot Jim PMed me and asked me politely to tell the story, so here it is:

Don't remember exactly what year this happened. NASM opened in 1976 and I moved out of the area in 1980, so sometime in there. Call it '77 or '78, probably.

My girlfriend of the time and I were standing in line to buy tickets to see To Fly in the Imax theater. Right ahead of us in line were two well-dressed middle age ladies. I couldn't help overhearing one of the women say to the other, "Of course, my airplane isn't here. My airplane is at Wright-Pat."

Well, you know that gets my attention. So I say to her, "I'm sorry, maam, but I couldn't help overhearing you say that 'your' airplane is at Wright-Pat?"

"That's right," she says. When I raise an eyebrow, she goes on:

"Have you ever heard of the F-82 Betty Jo?" she says, in a slightly condescending tone. She doesn't yet realize that she's dealing with a genuine Airplane Nerd, Black Belt, 3rd Degree.

"Well of course," I say, quickly wracking my brain for any connection between that airplane and any famous aviatrix of the day, such as Jackie Cochran or Betty Skelton or Pancho Barnes. I got nothing. "But how is that 'your' airplane?" I ask.

"I'm Betty Jo," she says, with a huge, gracious smile. It was Betty Jo Thacker, wife of Bob Thacker, pilot of that F-82 on its record-setting flight!

Of course I am immediately semi-starstruck. I shake her hand and tell her what an honor and a pleasure it is to meet her and so forth. Don't recall any of the details of the brief ensuing conversation, but I'm sure she was pleased that some random stranger treated her like a celebrity in front of her friend.

And of course, I have a great "Brush with Greatness" story that I tell to this day to those who would appreciate it. (David Letterman played "Brush with Greatness" with audience members for years, and they always made me laugh.)

So that's the Betty Jo story, Jim. Was it worth the wait?

Col. Bob Thacker

 

[Wyandot Jim]

WOW!!! The wait was well worth it.
This is the only flying F-82 and it is an XP-82 that came out of a backyard of an Ohio Collector in many pieces. It took many years and man-hours to restore it. It is now for sale for around 10 million???


When the Korean War came, the Twin Mustang was given a chance at combat, and quickly made history yet again, taking the first three U.S. air-to-air kills in the conflict.

Tasked as an interceptor and long-range bomber escort, the F-82E had a range of over 1,400 miles, making a trip from London to Moscow possible with a 30-minute loiter time to spare. At the time, it was the only American fighter capable of doing so, and as such, was invaluable. One F-82, Betty Jo, made history in 1947 after it flew 5,051 miles from Hawaii to New York without refueling.