CAF Rocky Mountain Wing (RMW) Museum is one of 75 local detachments of the national

Commemorative Air Force The Commemorative Air Force (CAF), formerly known as the Confederate Air Force, is an American non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas, that preserves and shows historical aircraft at airshows, primarily in the U.S. and Canada. The CAF h ...

(CAF) non-profit aviation association dedicated to ''Honoring American Military Aviation through Flight, Exhibit and Remembrance.'' The Museum is located at the

Grand Junction Regional Airport Grand Junction Regional Airport is northeast of Grand Junction, in Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Owned by the Grand Junction Regional Airport Authority, it is the largest airport in western Colorado and third largest in the state, behi ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, and contains artifacts and exhibits from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

wars. In addition they operate two aircraft which are part of the CAF's fleet of over 170 vintage warbirds. These two examples happen to be both the largest and smallest of single engine aircraft used by American armed forces during WWII, namely a

Grumman TBM Avenger The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors) is an American World War II-era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air and naval a ...

and a

Piper J-3 The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...

(Army L-4 or Navy NE-1) ''Grasshopper''. Besides offering these as "hands-on" exhibits, the public may also schedule rides as a passenger in these aircraft either at the museum or at airshows where they are also exhibited. The museum began operation in 1981 with final construction completed in 2000.

Flying aircraft on display

TBM ''Avenger'' History

TBM Avenger Aircraft N53503 is a Torpedo Bomber M model

single engine aircraft in flying condition which was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2017. It is long with wingspan (with wings folded, ). The original logbooks of the Museum's TBM Avenger BuNo 53503 show that it was accepted by the US Navy on June 1, 1945 at the Norfolk NAS and assigned to the VT-75 Squadron - the "Fish Hawks". It was transferred in 1947 to VT-82 Squadron - the "Devil's Diplomats" and Naval Air Reserve Training at Los Alamitos in southern California. In 1950 it was lend/leased to the Royal Canadian Navy with only 546 total hours flown. TBM 53503 flew in the RCN 881 Squadron from the carrier

HMCS Magnificent (CVL 21) HMCS ''Magnificent'' (CVL 21) was a light aircraft carrier that served the Royal Canadian Navy from 1948–1957. Initially ordered by the Royal Navy during World War II, the Royal Canadian Navy acquired the ''Magnificent'' while waiting for a ...

as a sub hunter. After her RCN military career ended in 1958, TBM 53503 was an aerial insecticide applicator from 1963 to 1970 for the Simsbury Flying Service in Simsbury, CT as N6583D. Acquired by the CAF in 1970 where she was painted as VT-10's "white 82" with a tri-color Navy scheme for the CV-10 Yorktown, but still lacked the characteristic dorsal gun turret. She flew with the CAF Ghost Squadron until 1981 in this configuration. During this time, her movie debut can be seen in the first five minutes of the movie

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...

as directed by Steven Spielburg. From 1981 until 1985, the Avenger sat outside in Arizona waiting for her next duty assignment and in desperate need of repair and maintenance on various systems. On January 17, 1985 TBM 53503 was officially assigned to the CAF Rocky Mountain Wing. By July 1989, she was once again "ready for duty" - complete with the installation of the dorsal gun turret, and a new paint scheme - that of a TBM assigned to VT-84, also known as the "Wolf Gang" squadron, aboard the . This squadron was the first to attack Tokyo on February 16 & 17, 1945 and the colorful yellow cowling was adopted to enhance identification as "friendly" when returning to the fleet from their raid.

Piper J-3 ''Grasshopper''

This versatile aircraft was first known as the Taylor Cub in 1930. Later as the

Cub it became the most prolific trainer in the world. There were 14,125 civilian built plus 5,703 for military use. The military version was known as "Grasshopper" and had the designation L-4 in the Army Air Corps and NE-1 in the Navy. Beyond basic flight training use the Grasshopper was used for military liaison scouting, coastal patrol and medevac.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caf Rocky Mountain Wing Museum Aerospace museums in Colorado Grand Junction, Colorado Military and war museums in Colorado

Museums A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Museums in Mesa County, Colorado

Flying aircraft on display

TBM ''Avenger'' History

Piper J-3 ''Grasshopper''

See also

References