After seven years of hard work, the North American F-100D Super Sabre at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, Georgia is just about finished. We have been following this restoration at WarbirdsNews for some time now, producing periodic progress reports. She arrived at the museum, a corroded, tattered hulk in 2010, but a small band of dedicated volunteers, including retired Air Force General Rick Goddard lavished thousands of hours of intensive care upon the Viet Nam War combat veteran fighter-bomber. As many of our readers will recall, General Goddard flew this specific aircraft, serial 56-2995, on 180 missions during his tour with the 309th TFS flying from Tuy Hoa Air Base in South Viet Nam. In fact, Goddard received the Silver Star for a mission in ‘995 on February 9th, 1969, making this aircraft an even more important and remarkable survivor.
Aaron Robinson, another retired US Air Force veteran, has also spent a lot of time working on the Super Sabre as one of the primary personnel assigned to its rebuild. He also provided us with all of the fascinating photographs for this article (as well as our previous pieces). With most of the structural restoration done, the major effort in the last few months has been repainting the airframe. This was no easy feat and necessitated partially disassembling the airframe, and a lot of precise masking to make sure it was properly coated with a finish that would endure. The major painting took place outside; museum staff having had to wait for the warmer spring weather to do the work. The following sequence of images show the aircraft being towed from the restoration hangar to the painting area, and then, following the respray, back into Hangar One, the museum building primarily dedicated to the Viet Nam War era.
Once inside, small reassembly jobs took place, as well as the application of new stencils. This may sound like just a little work, but it’s often these details which take so much effort to complete as they are so fiddly… and there are so many of them. The various weapons pylons also needed filling out. One of the real joys was seeing General Goddard re-apply a pair of Pennzoil stickers to the airframe. His brother had worked for the company while Gen. Goddard, then just a Lieutenant, was flying in Viet Nam, and sent him the stickers. On a lark, the young pilot had stuck them to his Super Sabre, and thus they are replicated today on his aircraft exactly as they were back in 1969. While a few more details need to be addressed on the airframe, it is essentially done now, and awaits an official unveiling, expected in early June.
WarbirdsNews wishes to offer our profound thanks to Aaron Robinson for his help in creating this article, and for his part in preserving such an important aircraft for generations to come. Bravo sir!
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Richard Mallory Allnutt's aviation passion ignited at the 1974 Farnborough Airshow. Raised in 1970s Britain, he was immersed in WWII aviation lore. Moving to Washington DC, he frequented the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum, meeting aviation legends.
After grad school, Richard worked for Lockheed-Martin but stayed devoted to aviation, volunteering at museums and honing his photography skills. In 2013, he became the founding editor of Warbirds News, now Vintage Aviation News. With around 800 articles written, he focuses on supporting grassroots aviation groups.
Richard values the connections made in the aviation community and is proud to help grow Vintage Aviation News.
Well Done!
Very nice restoration.. I have some very nice F-100 era P-Series
helmets if W.R. Museum would like one for display with the A/C.
Paul,
Thank you for your generous offer! Please contact Museum curator Mike Rowland at [email protected] or 478-926-7311.