Messerschmitt Bf 109G-10/U4 Gustav (Serial No. 61-0824), C/N 610824, coded "Blue 4". This aircraft was captured at Neubiberg, near Munich, Germany in May 1945. It was shipped to the USA on HMS Reaper and tested as USA FE-124, later T2-124, at Freeman Field, Indiana. This aircraft is currently preserved in the National Museum of the USAF, Dayton, Ohio. It is painted as (Wk. Nr. 610824), "Blue 4" of JG 300, "Wild Sau."
Bf 109G-10/U-4, (Wk. Nr. 610824), 11/JG52, coded "Black 2", surrendered at Neubiberg, near Munich in the group's en masse retreat to escape Soviet forces. This machine was one of three Bf 109s taken to the US by Capt Fred McIntosh, in charge of collecting piston-engined aircraft for "Watson's Whizzers." After test flying, it was found not to be airworthy and made its journey to Cherbourg by truck, it was then loaded on the aircraft carrier HMS Reaper along with many other captured Luftwaffe aircraft and left port on 19 July 1945. 12 days later it arrived at pier 14 in New York Harbor, and it was then trucked to Newark, New Jersey and finally arrived at Freeman Field near Seymour, Indiana on 17 May 1946. The aircraft was given a rather spurious paint scheme and coded USA FE-124, this was changed later to T2-124, when the Air Technical Service Command underwent re-organization and the Technical Data Laboratory Branch became part of T-2 Intelligence. 610824 was not used for research, but instead became a display aircraft in the early post war era touring various airbases. In 1947, T2-124 and T2-118 were donated to the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Sometime around 1955, Bud Weaver, an FAA inspector in Atlanta traded a working aero engine for the two aircraft. They were then stored out in the open at various rental properties owned by Mr. Weaver and soon became derelict due to vandals and exposure to the elements. It was at this time that 610824 lost its original wings. Someone had the local Trash Company haul it off to the dump. Mr. Weaver arrived in time to retrieve the fuselage, but it was too late to save the wings. If anything good could have happened from all this, then at least the weather had worn off the spurious paint job to reveal the original markings on what was left of the airframe. In the mid-1960s T2-124 and T2-118 parted company as John W. Caler of Sun Valley, California Valley purchased the remains of the Me-109. His intentions were to restore the aircraft (in his own garage!) and he was able to obtain a set of wings from a Czech Avia. He reportedly tried to re-skin the fuselage and because of a lack of proper tools and expertise, the results were not a professional looking job. This is supposed to be a clue to 610824's identity. This project was eventually abandoned and the airframe sold to an unknown private collector, date unknown at this time. Reg. No. N109MS.
Somewhere between 1979 and 1984 it was sold to Doug Arnold's Warplanes of Great Britain Collection and placed in storage at his Biggin Hill facility to eventually become a stable mate with another Bf 109G-10, (Wk. Nr. 610937). Some restoration work may have been carried out but cannot be confirmed. In 1989 it was sold to Evergreen Ventures and restored to static display condition by Vintage Aircraft Restorations Ltd., of Fort Collins, Colorado. Restoration work may have been completed in 1995-1997. Since 1 April 1999, 610824 has been on display at the National Museum of the USAF at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, coded "Blue 4" of JG 300, "Wild Sau". An interesting side note here: as Freeman Field was a subsidiary of what was then known as Wright Field, it would seem that 610824 has traveled full circle since its arrival in the USA in 1946.