The Frankenjet is alive!

That thing’s gonna have a salvage title! But honestly this is pretty awesome. The world of MRB engineering (“Material Review Board”, aka how do we fix this mistake and keep building the airplane) is really neat. Every problem is unique.
 
That thing’s gonna have a salvage title! But honestly this is pretty awesome. The world of MRB engineering (“Material Review Board”, aka how do we fix this mistake and keep building the airplane) is really neat. Every problem is unique.
The dark side is a pathway to abilities many consider...unnatural!
 
Certainly not the first time this has been done.

This is probably dated now, but I remember not a whole long time ago, the only airworthy F-5F (2 seater) in the USN and USMC inventory was such a frankenbuild. It was being passed around between Fallon, Yuma, NOLA, and Key West, or new guys to the airframe were being sent to wherever it happened to be at the time. I also seem to remember an F-22 that got this treatment, and definitely a couple F/A-18s and EA-6Bs in the last couple decades.
 
There is a FrankenHawk out there that was built after one took an RPG and basically wrecked everything from the tail back.

The downside was it was rebuilt and flew great, then it got hit with another RPG, same procedure and flew like ass afterward.


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Back in the day we had a Cherokee 6 that had had the wings replaced with a totally different serial number block after landing on a glacier. The POH had hand edits to include its SN to make the fuel system description match.
 
Certainly not the first time this has been done.

This is probably dated now, but I remember not a whole long time ago, the only airworthy F-5F (2 seater) in the USN and USMC inventory was such a frankenbuild. It was being passed around between Fallon, Yuma, NOLA, and Key West, or new guys to the airframe were being sent to wherever it happened to be at the time. I also seem to remember an F-22 that got this treatment, and definitely a couple F/A-18s and EA-6Bs in the last couple decades.

It has been done before, but still cool. One example was Darryl Greenamyer with F-104 parts and set some records. In addition to that, he was also part of the Kee Bird recovery attempt.

 
Back in the day we had a Cherokee 6 that had had the wings replaced with a totally different serial number block after landing on a glacier. The POH had hand edits to include its SN to make the fuel system description match.
Like all of the other stories, I've told this one before. But back at FLX in the early aughts (when dinosaurs ruled the earth), we had a 210 with an "M" wing and an "N" wing. You could tell because (IMS) some of the maintenance hatches weren't the same. So that's when the FAA swooped in and started busting people for not having a portable scale.
 
Like all of the other stories, I've told this one before. But back at FLX in the early aughts (when dinosaurs ruled the earth), we had a 210 with an "M" wing and an "N" wing. You could tell because (IMS) some of the maintenance hatches weren't the same. So that's when the FAA swooped in and started busting people for not having a portable scale.
Sounds very similar to our bird…in this case different access panels and fuel tank capacity.
 
Like all of the other stories, I've told this one before. But back at FLX in the early aughts (when dinosaurs ruled the earth), we had a 210 with an "M" wing and an "N" wing. You could tell because (IMS) some of the maintenance hatches weren't the same. So that's when the FAA swooped in and started busting people for not having a portable scale.
Circa this time frame?
 
Circa this time frame?
30 year old Boris may have been writing checks his spaghetti-arms couldn't cash, there. But I regat nothing!
 
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It has been done before, but still cool. One example was Darryl Greenamyer with F-104 parts and set some records. In addition to that, he was also part of the Kee Bird recovery attempt.


Oh for sure. That was a really cool project. Was Darryl the guy who had an engine fire in his MiG-15 (or maybe it was a -17) somewhere over Salem OR and ended up putting it down in KEUG permanently, during a ferry flight? I feel like it was. That jet has been there since the mid 1990s, last I saw it (maybe 20 years ago) it was still parked outside the little museum there, between hangars, with burn marks along the side of the tailpipe.
 
The FrankenProwler was cobbled together from three airframes.


I'm pretty sure she was with our prowler squadron on the last ever boat cruise, nicknamed "Christine". She dumped a lot of gas out of the wingfolds when they were moved behind the JBD. She also did a no slat approach that cruise. That is the closest you will see to a supersonic Prowler
 
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