Rarities from NAS Norfolk storage (1 Viewer)

[OldGeezer]

A couple of years ago I posted a photo I took while working at the Naval Air Rework Facility in Norfolk VA in the mid-1970s, of an aircraft that was among the last to be pulled out of the long-term storage shelters containing WW2-era aircraft. While going through Government archives this morning I was surprised to find another photo of it, taken by someone else, much clearer than the one I had posted. And in the background you can just glimpse bits of the other fascinating aircraft that I failed to get photos of but that I saw several times in the NARF's flight test hangar - the mixed-propulsion Curtiss XF15C. Both have been preserved and are in museums now. I'm posting here since both were technically brought to life before the end of WW2 but if this needs to be moved elsewhere, I'll understand. I've never quite figured out the what/where rules... My photo is at the top, the archive one is below it.

 

[OldGeezer]

And here's a previously-published one of XF15C by itself, but just look at what's in the background!

 

[mjfur]

Interesting that the Ar-234 and Do-335 are still sitting outside post 1947 (Red Stripe in National Insignia).

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff!

 

[Tiger11]

And here's a previously-published one of XF15C by itself, but just look at what's in the background!

View attachment 901039

Similar, but seems to me to be a different aircraft? No cranked wings and four-bladed props.

 

[Sabrejet]

It's two Arados and a Do-335 as per the subsequent photos.

 

[OldGeezer]

Similar, but seems to me to be a different aircraft? No cranked wings and four-bladed props.

I mentioned that it was a different aircraft than the one in the photo I posted, one that "I failed to get photos of but that I saw several times in the NARF's flight test hangar - the mixed-propulsion Curtiss XF15C."

 

[Steve Hnz]

Similar, but seems to me to be a different aircraft? No cranked wings and four-bladed props.

I mentioned that it was a different aircraft than the one in the photo I posted, one that "I failed to get photos of but that I saw several times in the NARF's flight test hangar - the mixed-propulsion Curtiss XF15C."

The aircraft in the 1st post is a Douglas BTD-1

 

[OldGeezer]

The aircraft in the 1st post is a Douglas BTD-1

Weirdly, when I had full access to the plane itself back in the 1970s, I labeled it in my scrapbook as "XBT2D1" which it obviously wasn't. I wonder now if we also had that one on hand at the time, and I just copied the wrong number for the BTD-1 photo. I certainly couldn't have just made it up, we didn't have anything like the internet then and I had very few reference books to look things up in, none of which would have included such a plane. Just another illustration of the perils of relying on personal items when doing historical research, I suppose.

 

[OldGeezer]

Weirdly, when I had full access to the plane itself back in the 1970s, I labeled it in my scrapbook as "XBT2D1" which it obviously wasn't. Just another illustration of the perils of relying on personal items when doing historical research, I suppose.

 

[SaparotRob]

Weirdly, when I had full access to the plane itself back in the 1970s, I labeled it in my scrapbook as "XBT2D1" which it obviously wasn't. I wonder now if we also had that one on hand at the time, and I just copied the wrong number for the BTD-1 photo. I certainly couldn't have just made it up, we didn't have anything like the internet then and I had very few reference books to look things up in, none of which would have included such a plane. Just another illustration of the perils of relying on personal items when doing historical research, I suppose.

Cool!