Museum acquires military aircraft from the ’50s

John Rennison/The Hamilton Spectator

Jim Van Dyk, chief engineer, left, Chris Holden, centre, and Mike Morley look over the remains of a Cessna plane that was used for observation by the U.S. air force.

Almost 50 twisted pieces of a crashed light aircraft from the 1950s lie like a jigsaw in the corner of the hangar at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.

It may seem hard to imagine that the shattered Cessna L-19 Bird Dog will one day be restored and fly again from Hamilton, says CEO Dave Rohrer.

But that is exactly what will happen after a few years of painstaking reconstruction to the museum’s latest acquisition, which arrived this week.

“It is like a puzzle,” Rohrer says. “But a lot of the people who work on restoring these aircraft solved jigsaws and enjoy it.”

Chief Engineer Jim Van Dyk says he and museum volunteers, many of them former aircraft mechanics, are eager to get started on the wreck of this Bird Dog, one of about 3,500 built from 1950.

The planes were used as artillery spotters and general liaison aircraft, primarily as observation platforms for checking the accuracy of the Army’s self-propelled howitzers.

They were flown in small numbers in Korea, but widely used early in the Vietnam War, when the U.S. military operated them in Forward Air Control and observation roles.

The Canadian military bought 17 of them in 1954. Bird Dogs were replaced in 1973 by the Bell Kowa helicopter, but some remained in service as tow planes for the Royal Canadian Air Cadet League’s glider training program.

The museum’s new plane had been owned privately. It was damaged in a landing accident, stored for several years, then trucked in from Sault Ste. Marie on Thursday.

Van Dyk said the museum plans to make a display of the restoration’s progress.

“A lot of visitors don’t realize what we start with,” he said. “We don’t just fly (old) planes, we’re in the business of restoring them and people should see what that involves.”

Van Dyk said it’s not possible to determine yet how much it will cost, or how much time will be needed, to bring the Bird Dog to flight worthiness.

“It could take two to three years, or up to five or six. It’s very labour intensive.”

The plane will eventually be placed in the museum’s ride program, a system that makes about 1,900 members eligible to pilot aircraft housed in the facility’s giant hangar.

“This will be very popular because it was an observation plane and that means you’ll get a good view,” Rohrer said.

Source: http://www.thespec.com