Pictures of Cold War aircraft.

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Now, was that the same one as Maj Al Williams Gulfhawk?
I may be wrong but I remember that he got it directly from Grumman. His first Bearcat, bought surplus, had a problem causing a belly landing in a cornfield as I remember. There was a very small fire but the police would not let him use their fire extinguisher so they all watched it burn. It may have been this incident that prompted him to go to Grumman directly. Bill's was N700A and Corky's was N7000A. Some photos are in AvPix Unlimited thread page 3.
 
I may be wrong but I remember that he got it directly from Grumman.
I think you are correct about that. His F3F was a special build by Grumman, featuring F3F-2 wings and an F3F-3 fuselage as well as an engine air intake that stuck up above the cowl, no doubt to aid in getting air in unusual attitudes. The old Monogram F3F-3 is in fact their Grumman Gulfhawk with a different cowl and paint scheme. I think his Bearcat was a special build as well. The USN did not release the F8F's to surplus until about 1955, at which time they cost $500.
 
Two U.S. Navy A-4C Skyhawk aircraft, of Attack Squadron (VA) 146 "Blue Diamonds," fly past support (ASW) aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge (CVS-33), 12 August 1964. These planes, from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 14, are Bureau #s 149551 and 149570. CVW-14's aircraft, deployed aboard USS Constellation (CVA-64), had attacked North Vietnamese torpedo boat bases at Hồng Gai and Lộc Cháo on 5 August (Operation PIERCE ARROW), following the Tonkin Gulf incidents.

 

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