Panther Paint Job
Watch a 57-year-old warbird go from Winona rags to Blue Angel royalty.
- By Michael Klesius
- AirSpaceMag.com, November 17, 2009
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John Fleck
In the last week of October, workers began to apply the final blue coat. This took about five hours, and was followed quickly by a clear coat to seal it and add shine. PPG Aerospace donated all paint for the tack, blue, and clear coats. This required an ordinary paint gun to fill seams and fissures around patched locations, as seen on the vertical stabilizer; then an electrostatic paint gun that reduces over-spraying, an environmentally sensitive and economical method of painting airplanes. There was plenty of prep work first, including covering the canopy and tires with tape and coating the walls and floor of the hangar with plastic.
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Comments (5)
I am looking for a color photo of the U.S. Navy EC-121-K Super Constellation. My last squadron was VQ-1, the "spooks. I also flew with VW-11 and VW-1. The aircraft was equipped with upper and lower radomes. It was a beautiful aircraft to fly and stately to see in flight. Can you help?
Sincerely,
CDR Frank Harding USNR-RET
EDITORS' REPLY: We don't furnish photographs. Try a Google Image search: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=%22EC-121-K+Super+Constellation%22&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&safe=active
Posted by Frank Harding on December 3,2009 | 03:13 AM
I was a captain on the F9F-4 Panther Jet at NAS Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1955-56. I was attached to FAS-812 at that time. I went to NAS Pensacola, Florida in September 1956 and began flight training. I flew the F9F-5 Panther jet as an Naval Aviation Cadet (NavCad) in 1958 at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas.
I received my wings as a Naval Aviator on 22 April 1958. In 1963 I was assigned to NAS Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota as the VA Flight Training Officer for VA-811 and VA-813. We had 15 A-4B and 3 T-1A aircraft assigned. The A-4's would fly in excess of 600 hours per month.
RE Dellwo
CDR USN (Ret.)
Posted by Richard E Dellwo on December 15,2009 | 08:19 PM
The "Navy Plane" had been a part of Winona, Minnesota for 49 years. A couple generations of kids grew up pretending to serve their country as a navy pilot. She will be missed in Winona, but without any doubt is now in a great place of honor, both to the machinery as well as those that truely served our country and helped preserve our freedoms. Well done by the fine folks of the Aviation Heritage Park of Kentucky.
Keith Nelson
Assistant City Manager
Winona, Minnesota
Posted by Keith Nelson on December 17,2009 | 10:41 AM
I have some Navy (NATTU) photos that CDR Dellwo might enjoy seeing. If his email address is available, please forward to me. Thanks.
Posted by Deane McKercher on August 30,2010 | 03:52 PM
I would like very much to see the pictures that Deane McKercher has.
Posted by Richard E Dellwo on January 13,2013 | 05:20 PM