Northrop YC-125 Raider

Inflight footage; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DW9SO__ZPI

The Pima example as photographed by me in the latter half of 2015.

This is, what I have on information about the two Raiders in US museums

2510 48-626
To Frank Ambrose Aviation as N2566B. exp. to Mexico XA-LOU, XA-KUY, FAM6100. (rep. recov. derelict ex mining site Mexico:
static rest. for NMUSAF as “USAF 620” .91/93, also using components from wreck of 48-634) NMUSAF, Wright Patterson AFB OH
94/14 (static rest. completed at museum 95, displ. as “USAF 620” later “USAF 622“

2520 48-636
To Frank Ambrose Aviation as N2573B. XB-GEY. Now at Pima Air and Museum, Tuscon, Arizona as XB-GEY (pic at #26)

Martin

The Pima example is still there.

This scan of a picture that I took at Pima in 1998 might interest you. I don’t know its present status.

Graham

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It looks almost ugly enough to have been a French design.

I was gonna say that makes Ju-52 look like a prom queen !

Here it is the USAF one at Dayton in 1991 shame all marks removed. Terry[ATTACH=CONFIG]245730[/ATTACH]

If you read to the end of the article it identifies the Mecom aircraft as 48-634, which is the one that crashed at Tulsa en route to the USAF museum (cross-ref with the list at the top of the thread – that seems to get the registration switch the wrong way round).

Sorry to reply to such an old thread but a search for info on this airplane led me here. I had been reading old issues of Flying magazine and a Gordon Baxter article caused me to be curious as to the fate of the particular airplane in that article. I have not satisfied that curiosity because there is some conflicting info regarding serial numbers. Maybe someone here can make sense of the info in the article and offer a best guess;

https://books.google.com/books?id=q8GHc8QvHLYC&pg=PA16&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

It looks almost ugly enough to have been a French design.

NMUSAF is “National Museum of the US Air Force” the official name for the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson for the last 20-odd years.

National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum (USAFM))

I see where my confusion is now.
I’m an old fuddy duddy. :apologetic:

I always see NM as New Mexico, and (slap forehead) Pima is in AZ.
I am working way to hard….. :apologetic:

It seems like NMUSAF wanted more acronyms in name just to be special! :p

Your first post is not clear, as you keep say New Mexico USAF (NMUSAF), not USAFM.

NMUSAF is “National Museum of the US Air Force” the official name for the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson for the last 20-odd years.

From Joe Braugher’s site….

48-626 (MSN 2510) on display at USAF Museum, marked as 48-622
48-632 (MSN 2516) to civil registry as N2570B with Frank Ambrose Aviation of Miami. Leased by Surinam (Surinaamse Luchtvaart Maatschappij – SLM) from Ambrose Aviation as PZ-TAO, Jun 11, 1959 nosed over Coeroeni, repaired. Jan 12, 1959 Kayser Mountains Airstrip; nosed over again. Repaired and flown back but severely damaged during bad landing. Registered CP-650 with South American Placers of Bolivia, w/o Mar 1, 966 in bad landing at Caranavi, Bolivia
48-634 (MSN 2518) to civil registry as N3756Q. Crashed on takeoff at Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma Jun 29, 1988 while on flight to Wright Pattersn AFB, Dayton, Ohio

It seems my first post was correct, that the one in Dayton is not the repaired plane that crashed in Tulsa. If c/n 2518 was not repaired and isn’t the example at the NMUSAF, then there might be remains of it in Tulsa.

Your first post is not clear, as you keep say New Mexico USAF (NMUSAF), not USAFM.

AFAIK, the Pima Raider was flow in and put in display.
After 2518 was badly damaged, another Raider was found and put on display, trucked in (per Jay’s post in WIX).

As for 2518, the last few pieces of it are literally in my attic, except for the yokes which Ascher or Darryl took.

Operationally, it was designed as a Arctic rescue aircraft, possibly the same specification to the USAF developing the Piasecki H-21 Workhorse.

An aircraft that was restored and enroute to the NMUSAF crashed/force landed on its delivery flight. That was sometime in the 80s.
I don’t think it was repaired…but judging by the damage photos I saw at the time, there still could be “substantial remains”.
The event was covered by American historic aviation magazines at the time, so perhaps someone at WIX could come up with an identity.

UPDATE: Here’s a link to the WIX discussion on the aircraft…it seems the plane that crashed was repaired and is the example now on display at the MNUSAF….
http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17753&start=0

And here’s an Aviation Safety database link concerning the crash of one in Bolivia (cn 2516) in 1966:
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=26974

And the 1988 crash of the NMUSAF aircraft (c/n 2518)::
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19880629-1

In both instances the ac are identified only by the c/ns.
But if the c/ns correspond with the USAF serials, then the Bolivia crash ac is 48-624.

Here’s an AP story on the 1988 crash:
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Plane-Bound-For-Air-Force-Museum-Crashes-On-Takeoff/id-524f49eafcd89142ed07c38abc304ef6

I was there when #2518 came to Tulsa, took pics of it while it was there for paint for the USAFM, and then after the crash and its eventual turning into a big pile of aluminum pieces.
Called a bunch of museums who might be interested, no takers.
Still have a big pile of pieces from it, saved from scrapper.

Oh, and Darryl and Co. also stripped cockpit of anything of value too.

What they told me:
Came from Houston area, either Conroe, or as goodall.com.au site says Hitchcock.
Tulsa for paint on way to USAFM.

This was not destined for NM/Pima, I think they already had one, saw it a year later in 1989.
There was a recent article in Jan 2013 issue of Warbirds International.

It was a Fugly airplane, but had blown flaps with, IIRC, 40* of drop giving is a very low stall speed but unfortunate habit of flipping on its back.
When I worked on C-17 just over a year later, lo and behold it had the same blown flaps!!!
I was every impressed with what it could do, very very roomy for a 1947 design, easily carry any vehicle, a tall person could walk upright anywhere inside.

Sorry – watched em couple of years ago then dumped. The Bolivian guy being interviewed died in another meat hauling crash shortly afterwards. Seem to remember Spanish language interview.

There are two Bolivian crash films on youtoob – in one of these the remains of a Bolivian crash are to be seen.

@rochford – Do you know links? Please share them? Would be nice!

Martin

There are two Bolivian crash films on youtoob – in one of these the remains of a Bolivian crash are to be seen.

From Joe Braugher’s site….

48-626 (MSN 2510) on display at USAF Museum, marked as 48-622
48-632 (MSN 2516) to civil registry as N2570B with Frank Ambrose Aviation of Miami. Leased by Surinam (Surinaamse Luchtvaart Maatschappij – SLM) from Ambrose Aviation as PZ-TAO, Jun 11, 1959 nosed over Coeroeni, repaired. Jan 12, 1959 Kayser Mountains Airstrip; nosed over again. Repaired and flown back but severely damaged during bad landing. Registered CP-650 with South American Placers of Bolivia, w/o Mar 1, 966 in bad landing at Caranavi, Bolivia
48-634 (MSN 2518) to civil registry as N3756Q. Crashed on takeoff at Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma Jun 29, 1988 while on flight to Wright Pattersn AFB, Dayton, Ohio

It seems my first post was correct, that the one in Dayton is not the repaired plane that crashed in Tulsa. If c/n 2518 was not repaired and isn’t the example at the NMUSAF, then there might be remains of it in Tulsa.

A couple of picture of 48-620
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Countrary to countless publications Surinam Airways operated two, not one, YC-125s. A lot of their data get mixed up by various publications. The below is believed accurate by Dutch researchers. Both aircraft were owned by Ambrose.

PZ-TAD (s/n 2516, formerly N2570B):
– Leased to Surinam Airways, Zorg en Hoop (PZ) Sep1959 for ‘Operatie Sprinkhaan’ (Operation Grasshopper, which aimed to have the backcountry fitted with airstrips to enable mining operations)
– Nosed over on take off Curuni (PZ) 6Nov1959 but repaired on site
– Damaged on landing Kayser (PZ) 11Dec1959 but repaired on site
– Written off on stalled landing Ulemari (PZ) 15Aug1960 with no casualties (pilot D.L. Walker)

PZ-TAO (s/n 2505, formerly N2563B)
– Leased to Surinam Airways, Zorg en Hoop (PZ) Dec1960. This was acquired to replace a YC-122 which had been involved in a fraud scandal (and was stolen, later retrieved and pranged, then fixed and went missing over sea, but that’s a different story!). The YC-122 had been the intended replacement for the wrecked PZ-TAD above.
– Aircraft had been returned to Ambrose from lease by May1964 when it was seen at Miami FL (USA) again as N2563B (reverted to old marks)

Picture of the Surinam YC-125s here: http://www.dutchavia.nl/index.php/about-2?showall=&start=2

Lots more information here: http://www.landewers.net/grasshopper.pdf

An excellent site with lots of data on the individual YC-125s: http://www.goodall.com.au/warbirds-directory-v6/northrop.pdf (which gets some of the details on the Suriname YC-125s wrong, but interestingly also mentions a third partial YC-125 survivor in Bolivia!).