May 4th, 2023: Fagen Fighters WWII Museum announced a major milestone in the restoration of their Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver on social media yesterday, formally rolling out the nearly-completed aircraft from their workshop at Granite Falls Municipal Airport in Granite Falls, Minnesota. Fagen Fighters acquired badly battered hulk of SB2C-5 BuNo.83393 back in 2006, and has been hard at work on its restoration ever since.
As readers may remember, this Helldiver owes its survival to the determination of former naval aviator and warbird restorer, Kevin R. Smith, who worked out a three-party trade with the Smithsonian and Naval Aviation Museum to recover this aircraft from its WWII crash site near NAS Dahlgren, Virginia back in the early 1990s. (Until recently, Kevin Smith also once owned the Douglas Dauntless project which is now on its way to New Zealand to supplement the restoration of another example, which we reported here.) Fagen Fighters hopes to have “the Beast” flying by summers end.
In related news, Fagen Fighters took delivery of P-47D Thunderbolt 44-32817 on May 4th. The aircraft had, until recently, been a part of the Lewis Air Legends collection in San Antonio, Texas. Noted warbird pilot, Bernie Vasquez performed the delivery flight on May 4th, 2023.
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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.
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