USA NORTHWEST 2014

~WARHAWK AIR MUSEUM~ (NAMPA,IDAHO)

Photos © R.Leeuw

Welcome to the Warhawk air museum!

The Warhawk Air Museum is a not for profit organization funded entirely by individual donations and private foundations.
The mission of the Warhawk Air Museum is to preserve and teach the history of American veterans and their contributions
to the freedoms of the Western World. My visit (25Oct14) was triggered by a sign on the I-84, what good luck!

Fokker D.VII, donated by Jim Osborne.

The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft, designed by Reinhold Platz of the
Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3.300 D.VII aircraft in the summer and autumn
of 1918. In service with the Luftstreitkräfte, the D.VII quickly proved itself to be a formidable aircraft.
The Armistice ending the war specifically required Germany to surrender all D.VIIs to the Allies.
WIKIPEDIA, more..

N9224C (c/n 2896) is a replica (built by Max Fullmer, details 1995 pdf doc) of the Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker
(triplane), a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The Dr.I saw widespread service
in the spring of 1918. It became renowned as the aircraft in which Manfred von Richthofen gained his
last 19 victories, and in which he was killed on 21 April 1918.
WIKIPEDIA, more..

The Warhawk air museum has a huge collection of memorabilia and it is great fun to browse these cabinets.

Among one of the most famous fighters of World War II, the P-51 Mustang has its roots in both Britain and the USA. The North American P-51 did not see action with American forces until March 1943. This combination of American airframe with the British Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, it was unmatched by any other piston aircraft of World War II.

The museum’s P-51C was restored to flying condition and made it’s first post-restoration flight in 2010. This aircraft can been seen competing in the Reno Air Races.

N4651C/36819 QP-B North American P-51C Mustang (c/n 103-26688) (ex/ 43-25057)
'Boise Bee'

Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk
'Sneak Attack'
This P-40E was restored in the late 1960s and first flown in 1971. It has toured air shows all over the U.S. and in Europe. It has raced at the Reno Air Races and was used in the filming of several major motion pictures including 'Death Race', 'Pearl Harbor' and 'Valkyrie'.

Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk I NX94466 (c/n 15404; ex/ AK933, 1057 Canada)
"The correct Canadian serial number for  the P-40-E Kittyhawk is AK1195N."- Sue Paul

Curtiss P-40N Warhawk
'Parrot Head'

NX94456 / 42-106396 Curtiss P-40N Warhawk (Kittyhawk IV) 'Parrot Head'
(c/n 30158; ex/ 43-106396, 880 Canada, N1195N)
"The correct Parrot Head number is N1195N" -Sue Paul
The museum’s P-40N was restored to flying condition in the 1980s and made it’s first post-restoration flight in 1986. It competes at the Reno Air Races and was used in the filming of Michael Bay’s 2001 motion picture 'Pearl Harbor'.

I was quite pleased to see this Waco glider here, as I attended the 70th anniversary on D-Day in Normandy,
France this summer and saw and read quite a bit on these contraptions. They did a great job to save this one!

Many people donated personal effects to this museum, to educate future generations.

USO actress Carmelita Pope played in films but also performed for the military, such as Gen. MacArthur,
and even had tea with the Queen of Italy!

WWII US Army Airforce (USAAF) portable landing lights.

Here we enter the 'Cold War era' display of the museum.

MiG-21FR NX1011E (c/n 061011; ex/ 1011 Cezechoslovakia).
It was acquired from the collection of Merle Harold Maine, who died at the age of 81, on 20Mar2013 .

North American F-86F Sabre

This serial 12769 translates as 51-2769, and it is a fake tailnumber, in tribute to the American Fighter Ace Capt. Robert J. Love of the 335th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group, FIFTH Air Force. F-86 51-2769 crashed in Korea on 04Jul1952. (See ASN website): 'F-86E-10 51-2769 (4th FIW, 335th FIS) was hit by MiG-15bis of the 494th IAP(190th IAD), successful bail out over Cho-do, pilot Capt Clifford Jolley rescued.' F-86E 51-2769 'Bernie's Bo' was (apparently?) also flown by Capt. Robert J. Love (335th FIS/ 4th FIW), who ended the Korean war with 6 kills - the 335th FIS was the top-scoring unit of the Korean War with 218.5 victories. Sue Paul: "Cliff Jolly was Bob Love’s wingman.  The F-86 was not part of Merle Maine’s collection.  It came from Minnesota in several parts and was assembled at the museum.  Bob Love was a personal friend of ours and thus we decided to honor him by painting the airplane in his markings."

Sue Paul: "The Mig 17 did not come from Merle Maine’s collection.  It was purchased from a private individual in California, who did not have any knowledge of its history.  All we know is it came from Poland originally."

1C-1417 1417, PZL Lim-5 (NATO alias 'Fresco'), formerly flown by the Polish Air Force.

You may want to browse: www.warhawkairmuseum.org/airplanes

FROM KOREA TO VIETNAM...

Cessna L-19 'Bird Dog' 0-11954 (51-11954)
Stewart Lanham suggested:"Cessna c/n 22346 is registered to the museum as N5263G; this was previously 51-12032."
And after closer inspection of the top image I found it does indeed wear, under the tail, N5263G as tailnumber!
Stewart added: "51-11954 was last reported with the South Vietnamese AF."

Piper L-4 Grasshopper 112032 'Mustang Sally' (NC51992, reg'd 21Oct2005 to Jerry D Utter of Austin,NV))

"It seemed but a snap of fingers, we stopped from our '56 Ford into the mouth of the Dragon".

The Huey UH-1C 66-15069 gunship is painted in the markings of the actual unit that flew this actual Bell Huey
in combat during Vietnam: the 68th Assault Helicopter Company 'Mustangs'.

An odd one: the Bensen B-8 (N1495) is a small, single-seat autogyro developed in the USA during the 1950s.

Naval Aircraft Factory N3N
'Yellow Peril'
The N3N design had its beginnings in 1934, with the first models delivered to the Navy in 1936. Built at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, the N3N was configured both as a land plane and a seaplane. The NAF was the only factory where aircraft and engines were built together. In addition, Sue Paul wrote: "The N3N was the only airplane the USN ever produced."

N3N-3 N45305 was built in 1940 and on the internet I found its c/n: 1918. But I also found that this c/n could well
be the last military serial (for the US Navy), which is indeed often wrongly quoted in the FAA Registry as a manufacturer's construction number. The aerialvisuals website has its N45305 registry to Paul C. Collins, dated 03Nov1992, and its CoA issued on 07Oct97. On 26Jan12 it was formally reg'd to the Warhawk Air Museum.

The Beechcraft L-23 Seminole (later designated U-8) was the United States Armed Forces designation for the Beechcraft Twin Bonanza and Queen Air aircraft in its inventory. U-8 57-6042 is no doubt a future restoration project; I found it outside at the back of the hangar of the museum I had no access to.
While googling I found it on the AMARC list, adding a registered identity:
N144LH, c/n RLH.14 and AMARC code UB 030 (partially visible here).

About Merle H. Maine: "he was an avid warbird collector, the Merle Maine Collection was based in nearby Ontario, Oregon.
An extremely successful businessman and construction contractor, Merle built a world-class assemblage of classic warbirds which he enjoyed sharing with fellow aviation enthusiasts, his collection being the main attraction of the annual Ontario Air Faire held each fall.
While Mr Maine never served in the military, he had a special passion for warbirds, and his love of flying and of aircraft began the day when he took his very first flying lesson, and after he bought his first plane just snowballed, with him acquiring plane after plane.
There was no provision in his will for the continuance of the collection and there is no local entity with the wherewithal to take on the expense of purchasing and maintaining such a extensive collection, so one by one the planes are being donated or sold to museums and collections across the country."
Article (19May2013) www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/liquidating-legacy-merle-maine

The historic flying legacy of Ontario's Merle Maine, Video www.ktvb.com

Video 2013 auction YouTu.be/sJrenwwazSM
Starman Bros. auction of the Merle Maine Collection (2013), LIST

Johan van Helden visited on 13Aug2013 this collection, which was put outside pending auction the very next weekend! Johan was able to walk around and take pictures. See the compilation below. His comments were added (*JvH*) on the above list.