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GRUMMAN TBF AVENGER PARACHUTE VINTAGE ORIGINAL WW2 PRESS PHOTO TBM TARPON | eBay

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VT(N)-90, Night Torpedo Squadron 90, nicknamed "Nite Life" (see squadron insignia below). Flying from USS Enterprise in 1945. ASV antennas were moved from below, to above, each wing. Various RCM gear and antennas added. Shoot for window added to crew door. Flame dampers on exhausts. Turret and tunnel gun eliminated. Turret interior stripped and gunner replaced by navigator. Original three-tone camouflage modified by painting over the white undersides with sea blue. White carrier tail marking and plane number were toned down. Often carried two external fuel tanks and only four HVARs. Missions were mostly night snooper and interdiction over the Japanese home islands.
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VT(N)-90 aircraft 63 after engaging the barrier. Note the navigator, seated in the turret, in the first two images. You can see the white webbing of his QAC parachute harness on his back.
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Cool sidecar scooter.....a Cushman? He must've dressed in the dark.

Yes, Grumman had a small fleet of various Cushman models to transport their test pilots back and forth to the flight line.

She (not a "he") is dressed pretty typically for a female war worker of the era in the US. Denim jeans, with a sweater (jumper?) over a blouse and her hair pinned back for safety.

From 1942, Grumman also had three female civilian test pilots who were rather well know at the time. Barbara Kibbee-Jayne, Elizabeth Hooker and Cecil "Teddy" Kenyon,, seen here hitching a ride on the front of one of those Cushmans:
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Above, Kenyon in a Tarpon.
 
Yes, Grumman had a small fleet of various Cushman models to transport their test pilots back and forth to the flight line.

She (not a "he") is dressed pretty typically for a female war worker of the era in the US. Denim jeans, with a sweater (jumper?) over a blouse and her hair pinned back for safety.

From 1942, Grumman also had three female civilian test pilots who were rather well know at the time. Barbara Kibbee-Jayne, Elizabeth Hooker and Cecil "Teddy" Kenyon,, seen here hitching a ride on the front of one of those Cushmans:
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Above, Kenyon in a Tarpon.
Oops......my apologies.
 
Another Royal Navy Avenger at the Grumman factory before delivery. The FAA pilot wears a US Navy M-450 summer flight helmet and Mk-II goggles. Many FAA pilots were trained in the US at Pensacola, along side the US Naval Aviation cadets there, and the mixing of flight gear was quite common.
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