Our Third Trip to the Florence Air and Missile Museum
Florence S.C. - June, 1997
A Powder Blue Tiger?
As we walked around to see what had changed in the last year, we were drawn to the F11F Tiger. It had a few
spots of decidedly un-macho powder blue paint on it. When I cautiously asked Lee about it, he made it clear that
the painter responsible was no longer a factor. Somebody needs to adopt this plane,
it would be gorgeous with a proper new paint job.
We learned some more history on the Canberra, apparently it
was a bit of a spook during its life. Despite being born as 52-1459, it wore the numbers 52-1618 and
52-1423 with various additions of a green "X" or "M" on the tail. It had a special camera installed
which could see up to 300 miles into China and North Korea if aimed in that direction. Of course, that
kind of prying would be rude, so I am sure it was just used for surveying
traffic conditions in Tokyo. Its code name was "Switch Blade".
We had to visit our old friend the C-1 COD, as close to "friendly looking" as warplanes get.
The BTD still looks impressive, even as some of the paint starts to peel.
We've got to find out more about this plane...
All photos by the Warmonger
Continue the Tour Connie Under Friendly? Fire
Back to the Florence Museum Page
Flightline II
Web construction and services provided by
Coastal Computers, Inc.
Comments and suggestions should be sent to
spotter@coastcomp.com