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Pima Air & Space Museum |
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This is BuNo. 141824 taxiing out with Blue Angel #5 when the aircraft was in the training command. The aircraft was attached to VT-26 before she went to the Blue Angels. This photo is from a book, Naval Fighter Number 40 by Corky Meyer and Steve Ginter (used by permission). |
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Tom Bispo, Blue Angel Alumni from 64-65 contacted Pima Air Museum about the F-11 in Blue Angels colors that they had on display. Here is the answer he received, along with this photograph:
The F-11 you photographed is BuNo 141796 and, as you will see, was not a real Blue Angel. This aircraft was on loan to us from the USN between May 1978 - August 1987 when it was put on loan to the City of Grand Junction, Colorado. Between July 1971 - 1987 F-11A BuNo 141821 was on loan to our museum but was returned to AMARC due to extremely poor condition. At some point, F-11A BuNo 141853 was at our museum; I cannot discern the dates though because the file is incomplete. I do know that it was still painted as Rohr ship #1 and had an in-flight thrust reverser. It ended up at the Pueblo Memorial Airport, Pueblo,CO. According to my information, this aircraft was a bona fide Blue Angel aircraft. As you already know, we have the former Rohr ship #2 and bona fide Blue Angel, F-11A BuNo 141824 in our collection. I have this aircraft's service history and other information if you need it. Regards, Pima Air & Space Museum This aircraft was the mount of Lt "Smokey" Tolbert, the opposition solo pilot during the 1968 show season. At that time, the solo pilots displayed between maneuvers of the four-ship main formation, but not with them. 141824 was retired with the rest of the "Blue Angels" Tigers in 1969 and sent to MASDC (now AMARC) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona for storage. Together with another ex-"Blue Angels" aircraft, 141853, this aircraft was refurbished by Grumman in 1973 to evaluate a system of inflight thrust control developed by Rohr Industries. '853 was used as the actual testbed, while '824 remained in standard configuration as a chase aircraft. After trials at Calverton and Patuxent River in 1974-75, both aircraft returned to MASDC, becoming the last Tigers to fly. 141853 has been preserved at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum . --HARRY S. GANN |
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Pima Air & Space Museum 6000 E. Valencia Rd. Tucson, Arizona BuNo 141824 |
