Survivors
Five F-82s are known to still exist.
- F-82B Twin Mustang, AF Ser. No. 44-65162, is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. It had been a "gate guard" for many years outside Lackland AFB in Texas, was acquired by the Commemorative Air Force in 1966 and was operated for many years by its Midland, Texas squadron. That F-82B stalled while landing at Valley Regional Airport in Harlingen, Texas in 1987. The aircraft was restorable but its unique props and landing gear were destroyed in the crash and replacement parts could not be obtained. In 2002, the CAF included it with a crashed P-38 in a trade for a flyable P-38 from a private organization, NPA Holdings. The USAF stepped in and demanded the F-82 be returned since it was only loaned to the CAF on the condition that the CAF return the aircraft to the U.S. Air Force if it was no longer wanted. In a published opinion, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December 2009 that the F-82B must be returned to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force from NPA Holdings because the CAF violated the terms of the loan agreement with the U.S. Air Force. This aircraft arrived at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in late 2009 and underwent an extensive restoration throughout 2010, modifying the aircraft to the appearance of an F-82G. In early 2011, the aircraft was placed on display in the museum's Korean War Gallery, modified and marked as the F-82G crewed by 1st Lt Charles Moran, pilot, and 1st Lt Fred Larkins, radar observer, 68th F(AW)S, when they shot down a North Korean La-7 on 27 June 1950, near Kimpo Air Base, South Korea. The aircraft is displayed without the F-82G's radar "long dong" pod, as none have been located.
- F-82B Twin Mustang "Betty Jo", AF Ser. No. 44-65168, is currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio in its Cold War gallery. The aircraft is displayed in the markings of its historic Hawaii to New York flight in 1947, along with clothing and artifacts used in that record-breaking flight. "Betty Jo" was delivered to the Museum on 21 June 1957.
- XP-82 Twin Mustang, s/n 44-83887, is currently under restoration to flying status by B-25 LCC Group at Kissimmee Gateway Airport in Kissimmee, Florida. A single fuselage and parts of the second XP-82 were located for many years on the farm of Walter Soplata in Newbury, Ohio. This aircraft was sold in March 2008 to aircraft restorer Tom Reilly. On 7 April 2008, the almost-complete left fuselage with original markings still visible was delivered to Reilly's restoration facility in Douglas, Georgia along with various surviving components from Soplata's farm. Reilly plans to use the left fuselage to reverse-engineer a matching right airframe, and hopes to eventually restore the aircraft to flying condition. With the problems encountered by the CAF over a period of 20 years in just locating a set of propellers and landing gear to return their aircraft to the air, the magnitude of Reilly's task makes this by far the most ambitious F-82 restoration project in progress.
- F-82E Twin Mustang, AF Ser. No. 46-0256, is currently under restoration to flying status by James Harker in Birchwood, Wisconsin. It was an intact airframe formerly located at the Walter Soplata farm.
- F-82E Twin Mustang, AF Ser. No. 46-0262, is currently on display as a "gate guard" at Lackland AFB in Texas as part of the USAF History and Traditions Museum in San Antonio, Texas.
Read more about this topic: North American F-82 Twin Mustang
Famous quotes containing the word survivors:
“I want to celebrate these elms which have been spared by the plague, these survivors of a once flourishing tribe commemorated by all the Elm Streets in America. But to celebrate them is to be silent about the people who sit and sleep underneath them, the homeless poor who are hauled away by the city like trash, except it has no place to dump them. To speak of one thing is to suppress another.”
—Lisel Mueller (b. 1924)
“I believe that all the survivors are mad. One time or another their madness will explode. You cannot absorb that much madness and not be influenced by it. That is why the children of survivors are so tragic. I see them in school. They don’t know how to handle their parents. They see that their parents are traumatized: they scream and don’t react normally.”
—Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)