Re: Aircraft pics
Received this from a friend this morning.
Rick,
The big day is almost here. Mike Glenn of the A-3 Association and his crew were on hand for the moving our TA-3B, BuNo 144867 from where it has been for the last eight months, the USS Midways restoration facility on North Island, awaiting an opportunity lift via one of our Nation's finest, the USS Bon Homme Richard (the BHR is the new one).
The TA-3B Skywarrior was loaded on the BHR this morning, February 8, 2012 and will set sail from Pier 8 Naval Station San Diego on the morning of February 14 for Naval Station Pearl Harbor, now known as Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam or JBPHH. The BHR will tie up at Kilo Pier in Pearl Harbor and unload our Whale on 21 February 2012. To make sure the Whale gets to Hawaii all in one piece, I will be accompanying it to insure its safe voyage across the vast Pacific Ocean....Damn I have a fun job!
In October 1968 our TA-3B was bailed to first Hughes for F-14 avionics and eventually ending its flying career as a flying test bed for B-2A Spirit Stealth Bomber avionics and radar. Its last flight was in June of last year when it was ferries from Van Nuys Airport to North Island NAS, San Diego, CA. Once the Whale is on Ford Island we will proceed to remove the all of the none standard pieces and parts and it will revert to what she looked like in operational service with VAH-123 then located at NAS Whidbey Island, WA, my old stomping grounds.
More to come as we set sail and when we prep the Whale to be lifted off of the BHR and as it is demoded back to a standard TA-3B configuration.
Cheers from Waikiki............Jim
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