FlyPast 02.2018

16 FLYPAST February 2018

briefi ngs

NEWS THE LATEST IN AVIATION HERITAGE

Staff at the Fort Worth Aviation

Museum in Texas have completed

their restoration of Grumman F-14D

Tomcat 159600.

Built in 1975 as an F-14A, it was

the US Navy’s longest serving

Tomcat when retired in 2006. In

1978, it fl ew with VF-84 Jolly Rogers

(marked as AJ 210), and arrived with

VF-14 Tophatters (as AE 104) in 1983.

It stayed with this unit until 1988

when it joined VF-142 Ghostriders.

After being converted to F-14D

status, it fl ew with several other

squadrons culminating in a tenure

with VF-31 which nicknamed it

‘Christine’ after the Stephen King

novel. It arrived in Fort Worth aboard

a Lockheed C-5A Galaxy on March

3, 2007, and is on loan from the

National Naval Aviation Museum in

Pensacola, Florida.

http://www.fortworthaviationmuseum.

com

Tomcat rolled out at Texas

museum

Grumman F-14D Tomcat 159600 on display at

the Fort Worth Aviation Museum. NATE LEONG

Spanish Lockheed Orion

fl ies into retirement

Lockheed P-3A Orion 22-21 made its fi nal fl ight on November 14. Having been withdrawn

from military service, it was fl own to Cuatro Vientos near Madrid, and is destined to be put

on display at the nearby Museo del Aire. Nicknamed ‘Abuelo’ (grandfather) by its Spanish Air

Force crew, the aircraft was previously based at Morón. PHOTO-JOSÉ RAMÓN VALERO

Dutch Starfi ghter on its

way to Austria

Lockheed F-104G Starfi ghter 21+60, preserved in the Netherlands for many years, has been sold

to a new owner in Salzburg, Austria. The jet, seen here with its wings removed in preparation

for the move, was featured in the 2015 fi lm Starfi ghter - Sie wollten den Himmel erobern (They

Wanted to Conquer the Sky), which dramatized the F-104’s troubled ‘career’ in Luftwaffe hands.

ROGER SOUPART

Wales’ only RAF Reserve unit marked its 80th

anniversary in November with a ceremony at

the squadron’s birthplace in Cardiff. No 614

Squadron was founded in 1937 at what was

then RAF Pengam Moors. Serving personnel

and local school pupils laid a wreath at the

unit’s memorial stone in the Tremorfa area of

the city. COURTESY MARTIN WADE

Weston-super-Mare’s Helicopter Museum

recently became the fi rst museum in England

to be recognised as a Recommended Venue

of Education by air sports governing body

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

The award was presented to the facility’s

founder Elfan Ap Rees (left) by the FAI’s UK

representative David Monks.