North Weald whats aircraft did i see

[baldy1926]

Hi
I was driving north up the M11 yesterday evening.
Looking across at the airfield i just caught a glimpse of a largish grey aircraft parked up near one of the hangers.
Any idea what it was North Weald does not show on flight radar so i could not check on there.
Thanks

[rix]

There is jetfest on this weekend. Will be one of the visitors I guess

[TCEvo]

There is/was a C54 Skymaster there - you can see it of sat map view - maybe that?

While since I've driven past though.

[anonymous-user]

Probably the Skymaster. I think there is a C47 and Catalina there this weekend.

Apparently not much there in the way of visiting aircraft for Jet Fest, organisers are getting a bit of a battering on Social Media about the show.

[yellowjack]

If it's the Skymaster it's registration number N44914, a C-54D Douglas Skymaster originally built in WW2 for the USAAF and then serving with the US Navy.

Flown into North Weald to play a role in a film (never made) about the Berlin Airlift. There were two of them when I first started commuting up and down the M11 in about 2005. Then both tail fins disappeared from view. N31356 was broken up, I seem to remember, but there are (or at least were) moves afoot to try to save the survivor of the two aeroplanes... https://forum.keypublishing.com/forum/historic-avi... ...They were operational when they arrived at NW, but obviously without a part to play in a moneymaking enterprise, they were left (as have many other historic aircraft been over the years) idle, with little effort to maintain them or care for them.



I think '56498' is it's old US Navy serial number, as it was "dressed" to take part in that film they didn't make...

https://www.google.com/maps/place/North+Weald+Airf...

Edited by yellowjack on Monday 30th September 01:37

[pjfry]

There's a volunteer group who've been working most weekends over the last couple of years to restore the Skymaster, They seem happy for people to drop in and look around the aircraft/lend a hand too: https://www.savetheskymaster.org/