More photos of Seawolf 324

More photos taken this past week as we removed the cowling, doors and tail boom for the paint shop. The red crew seats will be changed to armor seats. The engine is a T53-L-13B, 1300 HP.

Getting Ready for San Diego and Oshkosh

The helicopter has been in storage, missing a few parts, since the last posting on this blog. Efforts started earlier this year to find all the gun kit parts and to get the helicopter airworthy with the target date of being in San Diego for the VHPA reunion, July 4th. Actually landing on the USS Midway for the BBQ dinner on July 2nd.

After San Diego, the next event is AirVenture 2010 in Oshkosh, WI where Seawolf 324 will be on static display and will fly almost daily in the warbird segment of the airshow. Plans are to do a story about this helicopter in the EAA Warbird magazine, maybe even a cover photo.

The armament kit will consist of the following:

• .50 cal simfire door gun, right side
• twin M-60 machine guns, left side
• Minigun on left flex mount
• Two 7 shot rocket pods, with dummy rockets
• Two M-16 rifles and Four M-1911 .45 cal pistols (crew weapons)
• Smoke grenades, C ration box, flak jackets, extra M-60 barrels, etc. etc
  

Here are some recent photos as the helicopter is being repainted with the correct dark OD color that the Seawolves used in Vietnam. The two bottom photos are of the old paint scheme "Army OD" color with yellow stripe around the tail.

The work is being done at Overseas Aircraft Support, Inc. in Lakeside, AZ