Hellcat roars to life!

On Friday, January 25, 2013, Flying Heritage Collection fired up their restored Grumman F6F-5 for the first time, marking the beginning of a new lease on life.  According to FHC's website, this aircraft was built in 1945 and was built as an F6F-5N night fighter.  It was later converted to a 5K as a target drone.  Since late fall, the aircraft was brought back to the FHC museum floor, where visitors could watch the maintainers finish the final process of restoring this beautiful aircraft.

Since the aircraft was used as a target drone, there were modifications made to the airframe for servos etc.  In order to bring this aircraft back to WWII delivery condition, FHC had portions of the wing re-skinned, so as to give it original panel lines.  FHC is known for their attention to detail and spared no expense with the Hellcat.

In the coming weeks the aircraft will be moved yet again, but this time, to be painted!  It will receive its final unit markings, of which has not been revealed yet, in February.

As always, I was there to catch the momentous occasion with video and photographs! 

If you enjoyed the photos and video, please show your support by visiting www.gofundme.com/fight2fly as I am in the process of making a much-needed upgrade to my video camera.

Thank you for reading!