Museum Highlights: Model Aircraft

In 2015, a new exhibit was opened in the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum by then museum coordinator, Katie Harvey. It seems fitting that I find myself looking at our new exhibit about a plane crash everyday seeing as I have been researching Newfoundland and Labrador's aviation history for the past few years as PlaneCrashGirl. A lot of work went into creating the exhibit, including collecting stories from locals who remember the crash (Mena and Charlie Power, and Mary Roche), searching the field where the Stack House once stood, as well as putting the exhibit together.


The 1956 Outer Cove Plane Crash Exhibit

This post looks to focus on one object in that exhibit: a model of the aircraft.



On a foggy 09 January 1956, Col. Carl Payne of the United States Air Force petitioned his superior officer to let him take off is poor conditions as he was due to be at a conference in St-Hubert, Quebec. The small aircraft took off, and subsequently crashed into the home of Richard and Kitty Stack in Outer Cove. The house caught fire, but luckily no one in the home was injured. Col. Payne was less fortunate. His remains were found still in the aircraft. The majority of the plane was not recovered, and while mechanical failure could not be ruled out, the cause of the incident was ruled as pilot error. More information can be found here.

This model was created by Tony Bowdring of the International Plastic Modellers Society, St. John's Branch. It is an accurate representation of the Lockheed T-33A-1-LO, serial number 53-5143, which was flown by Col. Carl Payne on 09 January 1956. This aircraft was a two seated, training version of the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star which was the first operational jet fighter of the United States Air Force.


A closer look at the model

This model has all of the markings of the aircraft including the fine detail on the tail fin. For a detailed explanation of the model, please visit IPMS St. John's post on their blog.

A closer look at the model

The model is an important part of the exhibit as nothing remains of Richard and Kitty Stack's House, and is currently housed under the stories of Mena Power, Charlie Power and Mary Roche alongside artifacts from 642nd AC&W Squadron 64th Air Division, North East Air Command (NEAC), Red Cliff, Newfoundland.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Outer Cove Air

Image
Today is  #CleanAirDay in Canada, a day to highlight how important good air quality is for our health and our environment. We may be biased but we believe that, here in Newfoundland, we have some of the freshest air in all of Canada. Outer Cove Beach, 2017. Photo credit: Lisa Daly And, if we may be so bold, perhaps Outer Cove has some of the nicest air in all of Newfoundland! Some people from St. John's certainly thought so, according to stories from Mary Boland of Outer Cove about her mother and the laundry from St. John's. Mary was born and lived in the Rocky Hills area of Outer Cove in 1920, and during an oral history interview in 2000 conducted by her son, Martin Boland, she shared the following story. When Mary was in grade 7, which was likely around 1932, her mother Catherine Hickey (nee Dyer) broke her arm, so Mary left school to help her mother out at home. Her mother took in the laundry for several affluent families from the St. John's area. At the ti
Read more

St. Francis of Assisi Grotto and O'Brien Park

Image
In June, a visitor to the museum asked about the historical significance of the Grotto located at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Outer Cove.  A picture of the Grotto located in the museum taken by Garland Studio [011.6.1] The Grotto is located a little to the side of the church, and contain a statue of the Virgin Mary with a little girl and the pedestal reads: THIS PEDESTAL HAS BEEN ERRECTED TO THE MEMORY OF MAURICE O'BRINE MICHAEL O'BRINE JAMES O'BRINE DAVID O'BRINE MAURICE O'BRINE JR. The Grotto at St. Francis of Assisi Church. Photo by Lisa M. Daly. According to Mrs. Mary Boland in an April 200 interview, Aunt Marg O'Brien lost four sons in World War II. Mike O'Brien was in the Merchant Marines; David was the youngest and was torpedoed while in the army; Jim was serving with the United States and Maurice also died. Aunt Marg was given the title of The Most Bereaved Mother. More information can be found in downtown St. J
Read more

The Forerunner

Image
It's a wet and miserable day outside, but the museum is cozy and we've got the kettle on. It's the perfect type of day to have a mug up and share some stories. My favourite kind of stories to tell on a wet and windy day are ghost stories, and I think I've found a good one. Fishing Stages - Outer Cove (from DAI) I've been doing some digging in the collections of the Digital Archives Initiative at Memorial University , looking for interesting stories from the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove area. This one comes by way of correspondence between "Big Willie" Croke and Martin Boland. "Big Willie" tells the story of Jimmy Carroll, a planter from Outer Cove, who had signed on as a deckhand for the S.S. Beverley when he was young. The S.S. Beverley was to transport codfish between Harbour Grace and Gibraltar in the winter of 1918. According to "Big Willie" Croke, Jimmy said, "I was living on top of the world that day and so e
Read more