WIN THIS PROPeller 

This is the last flying Fleet Model 8 biplane left in the world.   The plane was manufactured in 1931 and helped to train a generation of pilots before WWII.  

 

In 1945, the plane was owned and flown by Army Capt. Fred McConnell.  While flying low with his wife he hit high tension wires.   The plane crashed and Fred was killed.   His wife escaped injury, but was distraught and allowed the pieces to lay in the farmer’s field for 37 years.   The center section became a chicken coup, the tail a windmill.  

 

Fred McConnell had survived over 50 missions as a B-24 pilot in the war.  But he tragically died in a Kansas wheat field on a cloudy day at age 26.   In 1954, while the parts remained in the field, the Air Force renamed their Wichita, KS, airfield “McConnell Air Force Base” in honor of Fred and his two pilot brothers.  

 

Jim Bumgarner, a Korea War Air Force Vet, aircraft mechanic, and university instructor, drove to the field in the mid 80’s and picked up the remaining pieces.   He started rebuilding the plane and flew it again in 1995…  exactly 50 years after the crash.  

 

Now owned by the non-profit Historic Aircraft Preservation Society, the plane is getting much needed restoration work.   It will fly on into the future as a testament to the Flying McConnell Brothers, Jim Bumgarner, and all our veterans.   

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More history of this Fleet Model 8.