Researching aircraft history

You're probably best to contact the USAF Museum at Wright Patterson AFB to begin with.

I suspect they have an archive of all USAF aircraft deployments and individual aircraft histories, if not, they probably can tell you where to find such information.

Thats where I'd start anyway.

Dana

Had this site on file. Your specific ser.# was not listed, but a few 1900 series are, and are listed as D models. Check this link:
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/1952.html

In the meantime, I'll keep looking.

stinger

The USAF Museum site actually has a pic of this plane as a D. Here is the link to the site:
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/fighter/f89.htm


A little further digging found this site:
http://www.aero-web.org/museums/ca/afftcm/52-1959.htm
It appears the plane is on display at the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, Edwards AFB California and is still listed as a D. No pics on the site but you may be able to contact them or someone in the area might be able to get you a pic.

Thanks for all the help on this guys. It appears as though it was never converted to a D. That being the case, I may just build the model and use these markings anyway. Authenticiy is actually not that important and my father wouldn't care anyway. Pluse, it's the only 59th FIS decal sheet.

Philp

I think it's incredible that you found a photo of the actual A/C! Good on you!
That site is definitely going into my faves list.

Dana - If #1959 has the same overall scheme as one that your father flew, why don't you change the numbers to match his A/C?

stinger

You also might want to check for records at Maxwell AFB in Alabama. You'll probably have a lot more luck there then dealing with Wright-Pat, and based on personal experience, they're a lot easier to get along with.

Thomas

Does Maxwell AFB have a research website?

Nice to see that someone in the model manufacturing biz is a member here!

stinger

I think so, I'm sure their web site will provide details on how to go about collecting data. What you'll end up doing is telling them exactly what you're looking for, giving them a few weeks to collect it, then making a road trip to go see it. You can get copies of whatever you need, but it will cost you, and for the life of me I don't remember how much. I don't remember it being at all too expensive, though.

My last trip to Maxwell involved collecting data for my 34th PRS web site (http://www.34thprs.org). I came home with roughly 4000 pages of information that included RECFLASH reports, MCARs and all manner of other cool stuff. Don't count on a lot of photos, you'll need to go directly to the squardon association or individual squadron members for that sort of thing.

FYI, that trip was about three years ago and I STILL have not gone through all of it.

Stinger, actually my father didn't fly them. He was part of the ground crew for the aircraft and it was only on F-89's. I just thought it would be nice if he had a model of one.

Thomas, thanks alot for the info! I'll look into contacting them and see what happens.

Thank you gentlemen.