Bruce, I do not disagree that the Museum never planned to have two F4’s on its books. When the USAF started their drawdown in the early 90’s a number of airframes suddenly became potentially available to go on USAFM loan. The F4 in question was offered to the MAM and was accepted at the time, even with some fairly big reservations regarding condition, as it was believed to be the only one available.
I and some others then spent a number of weekends travelling from the Midlands to Woodbridge, to work on the aircraft in a HAS. I would say we were 80% of the way through dismantling, when I had the call at work from the BDRT team we were liaising with. We were effectively given 48hrs to arrange to move it otherwise it would be scrapped as the base wanted to close down the HAS complex it was situated in. I therefore agreed with the BDRT team a plan to cut the wing off in such a way that would give a fighting chance of re-attaching at a later date, which they duly carried out. We subsequently moved it in this condition within a few days.
Whilst a plan was still being hatched to re-assemble the airframe, we had news that the ‘Mig Killer from UH was available for us to take on. This had always been the ‘primary target’ but it had been suggested previously that this was to be retained within USAFE due to its history. We agreed to the loan of this second F4 only if we could move it whole (wings attached) Thankfully we were able to achieve a plan to carry this out, with co-operation from various agencies and assistance from the USAF at Upper Heyford with loading. This duly arrived early one Sunday Morning after an interesting journey up the M40, taking up 2 lanes and the hard shoulder!
Hence we had 2 F4’s on site. The ‘spares ship’ has subsequently been used to provide parts for the display aircraft, along with the second F4 at Heyford, which was scrapped by the USAF.
As always the story is never as clear cut as we would like. As has been indicated above and in other threads, the arrangements for USAFM aircraft has since become more problematic. The Museum has NOT declared any intention to change the status of the second airframe and frankly the higher profile this subject is made the more there is the possibility of a far more destructive outcome be the end result. Anyone remember the F14’s sat at Chino ????
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