For the aircraft lovers

[Fencer]

X-planes

 

[user 2024]

That was cool, thanks Kevin.

 

[FJRocket]

The X-14 sits in a pole barn hangar not too far from my house. It's actually in a museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana called Ropkey Armour Museum. Mostly, the owner collects tanks and heavy armored vehicles. But he also has a few airplanes.

The X-14 sits in the corner, mostly intact, but in wrecked condition. The owner and his son bought it from a salvage yard about 2 weeks before it was going to be scrapped for the aluminum! Evidently it was trashed on landing by one of the last Apollo astronauts, and NASA decided to dump the hand built one off, since the Apollo program and moon landing flights were being ceased.

Once the X-14 was recovered from salvage, Fred Ropkey called NASA and said he had the X-14 in his barn and wanted more information, and any help NASA could give him. The guy who was evidently in charge of the X-14 flight program told Fred that there was no way in hell that he had the X-14, that it had been scrapped long ago. Fred told the guy he was in his barn, sitting in the cockpit, talking to the guy on his cell phone. The guy said OK, if you're in the X-14, remove this panel and read the inscription and tell me what it says. Fred unscrewed the panel and told the guy "Aurthur Godfrey sat here" (or something to that effect). The NASA chief was floored, but knew that Fred DID have the one and only X-14. Subsequently, NASA sent Fred ALL the paperwork and movies and whatever they could come up with for the aircraft so that it would be kept with the plane.

Once word got out that Ropkeys had the plane, they were contacted many times by NASA, Air Force and Smithsonian to BUY or TRADE the X-14. In the later years efforts to put all the X planes on exhibit, the institutions have made Fred several offers to trade off the aircraft. So far, Fred knows what a jewel he has, and they haven't offered him nearly enough for the lunar lander practice aircraft, which is referred to as the first successful twin jet VTOL airplane.

If you want to see it, the museum is free and open to the public weekdays. Oh, and BTW, Fred has about 20 motorcycles in the museum, too.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Great story about the X-14A and thanks for the link to the video.

Gee, can't imagine how people might think some of those aren't UFO's !!!