Re: [MV] Oshkosh MV Crash...

Antoine Compin (acompin@earthlink.net)
Fri, 30 Jul 1999 18:46:24 -0700

Wow, I think I have met Howard Pardue some 5 or 6 years ago at
Breckinridge TX airport, where Ezell Aviation - based there -
was building a 1925 Potez A25 flying replica for a movie I was
producing. At the time, Nelson Ezell and his boys had just
finished restoration of a F-4U Corsair for somebody whom I saw
test-flying it that day around the airport. In another hangar at
Breckinridge airport was a Bearcat, alongside a Jeep... Nelson
introduced me to the gentleman, but I can't remember his name
now... Could it be these two planes? Ezell also had a couple
more bearcat airframes undergoing restoration at the back oh his
hanger, and a Junker Tri-motor on the apron outside in front...

BTW, the Pilot who flew our Potez replica for the movie was Tom
Danaher, from Wichita Falls, TX. He was then 73 years old and a
WWII Ace (Pacific). Remarkable feat considering his age, an open
cockpit, the altitude and winter in the Canadian Rockies
(passing for the Chilean Andes)... Tom had done quite a bit of
hairy movie flying though, like in "Air America" or
"Cliffhanger"... He used to earn a living ferrying Air Tractors
and Ag-Cats (crop-dusters) from Texas and across the Atlantic to
Europe, with the extra fuel supply in the hamper in front!

Antoine Compin

1943 Willys MB & '44 MBT
1942 Harley WLA
1942 Harley XA
MVPA 14803 - MVCG (France)
http://www.freehomepages.com/antoine

----- Original Message -----
From: bdk <bdk@geocities.com>
To: MV LIST <mil-veh@skylee.com>
Sent: Friday, July 30, 1999 5:35 PM
Subject: [MV] Oshkosh MV Crash...

> From: http://www.avweb.com/oshkosh/osh99/day2/oshwire.html
> --------------------------------------------------------------
----------
> Warbirds Collide
>
> Corsair Pilot Critical
>
> EAA AirVenture officials do what they can to make their event
safe, then
> cross their fingers and pray for luck. That luck ran low
Thursday
> afternoon as the warbirds were taking to the air for the daily
airshow.
> As a formation of Bearcats and Corsairs started their takeoff
roll,
> something went terribly wrong. Thousands of airshow fans
watched in
> horror as one of the F-4U Corsairs, piloted by 56-year-old
Laird Doctor
> of Dallas, Texas, collided with a Bearcat fighter flown by
Howard
> Pardue, of Breckinridge, Texas.
>
SNIP....

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