Rare Birds in Everett, WA

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Also present was the prototype Comet 4C that, after test flying, was sold to Mexico. Luckily it survived and ended up in the Seattle Museum's collection. It's undergoing restoration. The cockpit alone is a labour of love:

 
Upon walking into the museum, I was confronted by this beast. It looks like a regular F4U Corsair until you look at it side-on. It's actually a Goodyear F2G-1 fitted with a 28-cylinder (yes, that's not a typo - 28 cylinders!), four-row Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engine. Only 10 of this type were built because it didn't offer sufficient performance advantages over the existing model. If the original Corsair had a long proboscis, this thing was equipped with a pachyderm's schnozzle!

 
AAAAAND...finally. The more observant among you may have noticed something interesting in the background of a few previous shots. I was amazed to find the mock-up forward fuselage for Boeing's 2707 SST. Simply amazing to see this in the flesh...and so glad someone decided to preserve it!




'Fraid that's your lot but I hope you liked these pics. If any of you are ever in the Everett WA area, I strongly recommend both these museums. The Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum is one of the best I've visited, bar none. The unusual aircraft, all conserved in flight-worthy condition, is simply remarkable. It's clearly a labour of love!
 
Yup, Bowers Fly Baby. How could you not tell, Mark? Its name is literally written on it!

Aaand yes, the Storch is an Fi 156C-2, according to the interweb WkNr 4362.

Terrific photos.That 2707 mock up is a real gem and the cutaway sections and illustration accompanying the nose shows just how damn ambitious it would have been. Do they have the rest of it or just the nose section?
 
nuuumannn said:
Yup, Bowers Fly Baby. How could you not tell, Mark? Its name is literally written on it!
Click to expand...

That's precisely why I rely on the spotters on this forum to keep me straight!


nuuumannn said:
Terrific photos.That 2707 mock up is a real gem and the cutaway sections and illustration accompanying the nose shows just how damn ambitious it would have been. Do they have the rest of it or just the nose section?
Click to expand...

I don't know if the rest of the mock-up is owned by the Seattle Museum of Flight. Info is remarkably sketchy. Certainly the entire mock-up was complete in the early 1990s. Some accounts indicate it was owned by an aircraft restorer on Merritt Island near Kennedy Space Center but others suggest it was in a scrapyard on that island. The nose section was on display in California for a number of years but when the owner of the entire mock-up died, it seems that the other sections were all destroyed for scrap. My guess, based on all this rather sketchy info, is that the wings and rear fuselage no longer exist and that the only surviving components are the nose section in the Seattle Museum of Flight Reserve Collection.
 
Yup. Thing is, the museum has a few big aircraft, that Comet included and not having that completely indoors won't be good for it. I remember when I used to volunteer at an aviation museum in the UK with a Comet, I spent lots of hours grinding corrosion out of it before repainting it. Would it be worth saving space for a big mock-up instead of something arguably more valuable that's an actual airframe? The eternal questions that plague the aircraft museum world. The USAF Museum is fortunate to have funding and resources available that it can build big hangars, so the XB-70 can be saved for posterity.
 
Me! Over here! Me, me me (raises hand profusely) ! Perfection in aluminium
These get you a well deserved bacon,sir. Sadly since I'll never get to see 99% of these places I'll have to live vicariously through others photos. Thanks for the little slice of vacation.
 
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