FOLEY – The Foley City Council recently approved a resolution to bring a second World War II plane to a new exhibit at the Foley Railroad Museum.
The historic T-34B aircraft will be on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. The two-seater, single-engine Beechcraft T-34B Mentor was used by the U.S. Navy as a trainer plane.
Mayor Ralph Hellmich said the plane will go in the new museum exhibit, along with the 1941 N3N biplane the city purchased last year. He said he hopes to see more loaner items as the city prepares the exhibit.
“We were approached about it and we’ve been approved as a repository for their memorabilia,” Hellmich said. “The Navy has to go through a great deal of stuff, but when we get this museum open, they’ve got tons of stuff they’re going to loan to us.”
The wings and tail pieces are not connected to the aircraft and it is not in flying condition.
According to an NTSB report, the plane crashed on Aug. 26, 2000, during a landing in Jacksonville, Fla. The pilot survived the crash and stated that he had flared the airplane too high, and the right wing hit the runway before the landing gear touched down. The wing buckled, leading to significant damage. The NTSB concluded that the pilot error was the cause of the crash. The pilot said he believed his prescription sunglasses with bifocals affected his depth perception.
The aircraft has been on display in the museum without its wings since 2004. It has been used as a demo for people to look inside the cockpit.
Foley’s Barin Field trained more than 5,000 aviation cadets from 1942 through 1947 and 1953 through 1958. The National Park Service designated Foley as an American World War II Heritage City.
The U.S. Navy still uses Barin Field as an outlying landing field.
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