MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS
[Left to Right] Grumman Avenger, TBM-3E, Serial No. 91586, which had been used as an air tanker by the USFS lands at Grumman’s airport at Bethpage, NY, in 1987, after a two-day cross-country fl ight from Twin Falls, ID. Retired Grumman volunteers restored the old war bird and it is now displayed on a simulated fl ight deck at the Cradle of Aviation Museum (CAM) Long Island, NY. Photos: Courtesy of the CAM
“I was glad to fi nd this Avenger which had once been a tanker although it was pretty beat up.” The museum doesn’t have all of No. 91586’s log books but Stoff was able to give me most of its ownership history. Overwhelmed with production at its Long Island plant,
Grumman contracted to General Motors to build TBM- 3E, Serial No. 91586. The U.S. Navy took possession of it at Trenton, NJ, in 1945, then ferried it to San Diego where it was tied down among dozens of its twins on the deck of an aircraft carrier. TBMs are beefy, rugged tail draggers with folding wings (opening more than 54 feet). Originally built to carry a torpedo or four bombs, plus rockets on the wings, TBMs were powered by a Wright R-2600 engine (~1900hp). Serial No. 91586 served several diff erent squadrons, returning safely home after the war.
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In 1956, the U.S. Navy sold this veteran of the air to Sonora Flying Service in Columbia, CA, to be used as a tanker on contract to the USFS. At that time the warbird became a civilian, sporting its new tail number N9433Z. Records indicate that N9433Z fought fi res during the 1960s in California and possibly for Intermountain Aviation based at Marana, AZ. Between 1970 and 1987, No. 91586 changed hands three
more times, alternately serving as a tanker and crop duster fi rst in Arizona, then in Nevada, Washington, California and Idaho. “We bought the TBM-3E from Northwest War Birds
around 1987,” says Stoff . It was fl own cross country from Twin Falls, ID, to Grumman Airport in Bethpage, NY, over the course of two days with an overnight stop in Canton, OH. Grumman retirees restored it at Grumman in the late 1980s and it was trucked to the museum. “ The TBM-3E was among the exhibits revealed when the new and expanded Cradle of Aviation Museum opened in 2002.
BY YEARS OF RELIABLE LIFE AND PERFORMANCE
THE END OF AN ERA When modern aircraft replaced the Ford Trimotors, Cooley and some of the other old-time smokejumpers wanted to rescue one for display at the local Missoula airport. “We lost out to airplane collectors,” Cooley lamented. “Without one of the Trimotors around, the Aerial Fire Depot just wasn’t the same. We knew this was indeed the end of an era.” Earl Cooley retired from the USFS in 1975. It was indeed the end of an era.
Giacinta Bradley Koontz is an aviation historian, magazine columnist and author who has received the DAR History
Medal and honorable mention from the New York Book Festival. She has appeared on the History Channel and in PBS documentaries. For more information, visit
www.GiaBKoontz.com.
DOMmagazine
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