By James Kightly, Commissioning Editor
On the morning of September 5, 2023, the 1959 Grumman TF-9J, BuNo. 147418, was carefully lifted, and placed on a purpose-built display mounting in front of the James Clemens High School of Madison, Alabama, USA. The culmination of a nine-year and (logged) 2,800 restoration project driven by Randy Beavers, the advanced trainer jet will have a formal dedication ceremony on September 14, 2023. The jet was chosen by popular acclaim as an unusual school mascot to represent the school’s ‘JETS’.
We will be publishing a detailed insight into the story of how this school mascot was saved and restored from the man at the center, Randy, and in his own words, shortly after that event.
