Plane almost finished
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on July 20, 2015 1:46 PM
The F-86 Sabre fighter jet that has been undergoing repair and refurbishing since February 2014 will return to downtown Goldsboro during the first three days of September.
It will be placed on the north side of the East Ash Street traffic circle, behind the brick "Welcome to Goldsboro" wings sign, and will be set in place with its nose facing upward and the plane tilted at a 15- to 20-degree angle, as if the plane were flying down Center Street, Assistant City Manager Randy Guthrie said at a recent meeting of the City Council.
The tilt will cause the plane to appear as if it were banking east, and flying south.
"It is finished. It's ready to come back," Guthrie said. "Our plans at this point in time in coordination with our firm that's going to place the plane on the pedestal and erect the aircraft, would be that we bring it back in late August to its location and then place it on the actual pole and lifted by crane the first two or three days of September."
Wheels on the underside of the plane will be retracted within the plane to hide them from public view. Prior to the restoration, the wheels were hard-mounted and unable to move.
"I just want to try and be sure that you keep the schedule on placing this back downtown," Mayor Pro-Tem Chuck Allen said. He said the plane needs to be in position before Streetscape is completed.
Guthrie said the projected dates of placing the aircraft behind the traffic circle provide a "hard and definitive schedule" for the placement of the aircraft, and that placing it in its new resting place before Streetscape is completed in November would not be an issue.
"We had to get on (the company's) schedule and, as you know, this is located in the railroad right of way and we couldn't do it on our original schedule and place it in July, and we had some paperwork and insurance requirements we had to get taken care of with the railroad," Guthrie said.
When the plane is returned to downtown in late August, Guthrie said there will be a "mini-parade" to celebrate its return, although no firm plans have been made.
Before the plane was moved to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base for refurbishing, it was located outside the Goldsboro Fire and Police Department.
The jet was originally loaned out to the city in 1970 from the Air Force through Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, and was placed in Herman Park.
In 1993, the plane underwent its first refurbishing and was placed next to the fire and police departments.
The F-86 was moved from its previous location on Feb. 20, 2014, around 2 a.m. because of the issues with moving a display that large through town.
Airmen at Seymour Johnson worked on refurbishing the jet in their spare time over the past year, sanding down the paint, repairing the plane's structural integrity and giving the jet a new coat of paint before deeming it ready for display.