Howard Pardue is the owner and operator of this beautifully restored rare Grumman XF8F-1 Bearcat, which is one the first two prototypes ordered by the US Navy in November, 1943.

Seen many times taking part in many Heritage Flights across the US.

Was sadly lost today flying his Bearcat this afternoon shortly after takeoff from Stephens County Airport near Breckinridge, Texas.

Blue Skies........


Link to Bio: http://www.warbirddepot.com/aircraft_fighters_f8f-pardue.asp

I know that Purdue was a great pilot, I've seen him perform several times over the years. But what on earth is a 77 year old doing flying a high performance, and irreplaceable F8F Bearcat? It isn't a question of whether you CAN, it's whether you SHOULD.

Don't misconstrue, my thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Pardue's family.

Cameron

Anyone who gives you grief over your comment is an idiot! He probably should have hung it up at 77, but who knows? I'll add a comment that will surely get some flak. He would eventually die anyway, but it's a shame to lose the aircraft.

But it's a shame to lose the aircraft?

What a rotten thing to say, Ed.

I think Ed's point was that sometimes our "choices" have a price for the world beyond our own intent. JMHO, cheers, Len

So a friend says: "cheer up things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure as hell Things Got Worse!

I was in aviation for several years, but learned most of my "perceived" insensitivity in the Marine Corps.

There's tons of them still flying. Somebody died.

I'd love to bring Howard back, he's been someone I've followed for years and I'd trade ALL the Bearcats out there to have him back. That doesn't change the fact that an extremely rare artifact is now lost for all time. LL

So a friend says: "cheer up things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure as hell Things Got Worse!

Compared to say a Tojo or TBD. There where what half a dozen of them? flying around my house the other day. I don't consider that "rare" really. Still a loss of a good pilot and plane.

lkj;l

So a friend says: "cheer up things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure as hell Things Got Worse!

There weren't more than around two dozen of them sold surplus in the late '50s, and many of those were pranged in the '60s and '70s. Others were irrevocably converted to racers. A very few (2? 3? 4?) have come back from Thailand but I doubt there are a half-dozen airworthy at the moment, worldwide.




Steel cuts flesh. Steel cuts bone. Steel does not cut steel. --Stephen Hunter, The 47th Samurai.

We will march on a road of bones. --Hunter S. Thompson.

Sat Cong!

this all happened. It was surprising to find out that about 10 are flying. Cheers, Len

So a friend says: "cheer up things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure as hell Things Got Worse!

is Rare Bear. Lyle Shelton built it up from a wreck and parts from a number of different Bear Cats. "Conquest 1" is in the Smithsonian.

Cheers, Terry

There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35 Bearcat survivors, 13 of which that I can think of that are flown on something approaching a regular basis. I can think of two others that may be considered flyable but are not flown and one more that is getting close to being flyable. That may not fit your definition of rare but it fits mine. If you had half a dozen or so of them flying around your house then I'd say you must be a Texan. There ain't no where else in the world your likely to see anywhere near that many except for a very few select airshows around the country and then only on rare ocassions.

The list of flyers:

Commemorative Air Force
F8F-2P N7825C

Rod Lewis
F8F-1 N58204
F8F-2 N747NF
F8F-2 N14WB
F8F-2 N777L (Rare Bear racer)

The Fighter Collection
F8F-2P G-RUMM

Dan Friedkin
F8F-2 N1DF

Tom Friedkin
F8F-2 N198F

John Sessions
F8F-2 N800H

John OConnor
F8F-2 N68RW

Tom Wood/Quality Leasing Corp.
F8F-1B N2209

Jens Meyerhoff
F8F-1 N9G

Royal Thai Air Force Tango Squadron
F8F-1

Rare is relative but something I can go outside and see flying around in my back yard is not what I consider "rare" compared to planes like the P-38, P-39, P-36, or planes that only exist as replicas like the Fokker Triplane.

By your definition then P-38's must not be that rare either, as my picture below would seem to indicate.

[IMG][/IMG]

...not to mention the 2 G-58 Gulfhawks, which I think are still airworthy. I can recall seeing pics of 5 or more Bearcats flying in a formation at a show a couple years ago. Granted he was in one of the XF8F prototypes, but we made about 1,200 F8F's and they were very popular with air racers. Not much of a combat record to speak of except for French Indochine. I wouldn't go so far as to call a Bearcat "rare", I guess it's about as rare as anything from 1945-46 is these days. I wouldn't go out of my way to see one in a museum or anything.

It may sound a bit callow, but I'd rather see an old warbird crash than to see it rot away in some desert scrapyard, at least it was doing what it was meant to do. Same goes for the pilot, I'm sure it's how he would have wanted to go if given a choice.

I'm not sure there are 10 Bearcats of any mark airworthy as we speak. Hasten to add that I realize I could be totally wrong. Then again estimates of P-51s number from 100 to 125 aircraft; not sure if that means airworthy. The original F8F-1 "Gulfhawk" was lost in a crash; don't know of a second one (F8F)but I suppose someone could have one painted like the "Gulfhawk". cheers, LL

So a friend says: "cheer up things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure as hell Things Got Worse!

And I think only one or two of them are in this picture (silver one and #14 - I believe his other ones are racers)




And yes, the real Al Williams G-58 Gulfhawk IV crashed in 1947, but there was another G-58 built for Grumman's president that was used as a company demonstrator that is (or was) being restored to airworthy status, plus there's an ex-military F8F that was painted like the Gulfhawk, but I think it now has a GSB finish and is in a museum, not sure when it last flew.

There are several F8F racers still flying that don't really resemble F8F's at first glance. I'd say there are 6 or 7 "warbirds" and 4 or 5 "racers" that I can think of. I feel like the Bearcat made a far more significant contribution to the history of air racing and warbird restoration and collecting than it did to military aviation. Shame that a significant person and a significant airplane were lost, but at the end of the day it's just an old plane.

Mr. Lewis has four Bearcats in his collection, three of which are stock plus the highly modified "Rare Bear". The other three in your photo belong to Tom Friedkin, Dan Friedkin, and Jens Meyerhoff. The Bearcat painted to resemble "Gulfhawk" belonged to the late Elmer Ward and was wrecked at Oskosh some years back. It is now nearing completion of re-restoration at Planes of Fame in Chino, California. The G-58B built by Grumman for company field service rep Roger Kahn is now in the Palm Springs Air Museum and is painted in a GSB finish. Although airworthy it has not been flown in some time and, due to legal wranglings with the musuem, may not fly again for a very long time if ever. The only significantly modified Bearcat still turning pylons at Reno is "Rare Bear".

answered you there are definitely more flying than I thought. I can't consider Rare Bear an F8F any longer really but that's kind of a rhetorical issue and subject to possible change. There is at least one flying in England if memory serves so your right it seems to be around 10 flying plus static examples. As stated, Rare Bear is the only dedicated F8F racer competing. Some pilot/owners fly their planes (like Howard did) around the pylons but it's not really "serious" attempts to win the races. cheers, LL

So a friend says: "cheer up things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure as hell Things Got Worse!

Tom passed a few years ago but the aircraft is still in airworthy condition. I know I got to sit in it a few weeks ago (see below). When Tom's son (an F-16 pilot and Thunderbirds announcer himself) has a chance he'll likely get checked out in it and start flying it again. These images are all of the same aircraft.

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I believe in god and the only thing that scares me,,,,,,is Keyser Soze.

we, as a society, will not tell someone "no".....

this may be a discussion for somewhere else, some other time....

"The FANS are fighting back!!!"
"The SECURITY GUARDS are fighting back!!!"
"The PEANUT VENDORS are fighting back!!!"

He had a valid medical from the FAA and a lot of experience in his F8F. To assume he was too old to manage that airplane is way beyond your level of expertise.

The reasons for this accident may very well have nothing to do with his age. "Warbirds" are very high performance aeroplanes as we all know. Look at the number of fatalities during training alone in WW2. Until something is known from the investigation, it's pointless speculating that his age alone was the issue. Just perhaps have a thought for his family.

I have flown with 30 year olds who were so inept that I would never put my friends or family on an airplane they were flying...

After decades of study, it has become obvious that Murphy was an optimist...

Something he loved to do, as was his right.

Old high-performance planes crash, whether or not the pilot is 77. They're pretty risky. But those same old high-performance planes have burned up in museums, been reduced to junk by twisters, and so on. It's hardly a tragedy that we will one day have no more F8Fs flying around. If that becomes important, someone will spend the money to build replicas--we've already seen it with Yaks and Me 262s and F3Fs. For my money, I can't shed a tear for any of these relics--it's nice to see them flying or in museums, but not a one of them is worth a human life. And still, people choose to take the chance to die in them. Their call, not mine. If I had a P-51 to call my own and fly around, perhaps I would, taking that chance. Not being in that position, I'm ill-equipped to understand where these pilots are coming from.

A lot of stuff is irreplaceable, and most of it is useless except as collectibles. People who die in accidents are irreplaceable. Worry about them, and let the damned stuff get wrecked.

"Don't take your life too seriously, son. At the end of it, you won't be alive anyway."

Red Skelton's mother

+1 Mark, great response.

and at times wondered if they should still be flying. I mean yesterday you had a 81 year old die at the yoke and his 80 year old non pilot wife had land the plane. I will admit the first thing that came to my mind was... WTF was he doing flying at that age without a safety pilot. But then I think back of my good ole DE Frank who was close to 70 , and one of the best pilots I knew. Over 20,000 hours. Oh then there was his wife Pat. Who was the best tail wheel instructor in the area, and probably didnt need her other eye to fly that Cub, and stayed booked up all year long, even tho she was blind in one eye. But really impressed me was watching how fast the older gentleman that was flying the ill fated Mustang that got popped by the A-1 get out of that cockpit. We are talking like fractions of a second of being dead. I still spend lots of time of getting in and out of cockpits, and have to admit I dont think I could have done it as quick as him. So... I dont know, I wont give ya any grief cause ya have a good point. But through personal experiences I know those older folk can still fly pretty well, and are more than compitent in the cockpit.


Brandon

I too was amazed by how quick that pilot of the Mustang got out of his machine. Luckily the aeroplane was in a upward trajectory and not massively nose down. Apparently, he contantly practiced his emergency egress - something I do sometimes, but really should practice it every time I shut down (as he did).
Tell me, what do you drive around in? I guess you know all about the "dumbing down" effect when emergencies happen and the brain is over loaded to the max.

rescuing so many warbirds...many of the popular warbirds seen at shows are the result of Pardue's intervention.

RIP Howard Pardue.

nm

What crappy news. Thoughts and prayers to his family.

I actually met him back in high school, about 1986, up at the Canadian Warplane Heritage museum airshow in Ontario. He'd just pulled up and shut down in one of his Corsairs. I knew who he was from Air Classics magazine (I was an airplane nerd in high school!) and he waved as I stood along the taxi way video taping. After he shut down he came over to say hello to me and my dad, it was pretty early in the morning and not many people were there yet. He asked us what we thought of the Corsair and I said I liked it alright! "Do the wings still fold on it?" I asked...he climb back into it, cranked it up and folded them up. I thought that was pretty cool. Met him again years later while working Air Ops at NAS Pensacola, he'd come each year with his FM-2 Wildcat. Nice guy.

RIP

I have never seen a more clear cut case of a man dying doing what he loved. Yes, the loss of the plane is tragic, but to see Howard go down with the plane is not. That man adored that plane. I would rather see him die in that Bearcat than in some bed in an old folks home.

I have met the man on several ocassions. From when I was a kid riding around on the oil cart with my dad during the old CAF airshows in Harlingen, TX to the pits at Reno. He was a man that was passionate about flying and warbirds.

If it was not for men like Pardue, I would not have been able to see many warbirds flyng. Men of passion and free enterprise. There are several Bearcats in museums all overthe world. There are also countless stuffed birds coldy resting in museums. I prefere to watch them fly. I feel pitty for those that do not understand what a 77 year old man was doing flying a high performance plane.

Yes, preserve one for history. The navy has done that. But I for one consider thae oportunity to watch a man like Pardue take one up and put her through her paces at an airshow, priceless. And that is probably where he was going, to an airshow. If not, he was taking her up to practice for the season.

I say thank you to Howard Pardue. Thank you for all the years of airshows and aerobatic routines you shared with me. Thank you for sharing the roar of the engine and spectical of grace and beauty that was your Bearcat. Thank you for the many low, fast, left turns at Reno. Thank you for leaving me with the hunger for flight. Thank you for the inspiration for the countless models I have built over the years.

Thank you for being a man of courage, passion, and generosity.

Very well said!

Those negative souls that bemoan about a "77 year old man, flying a priceless aircraft"...most have never flown. Heard the same rants last Sept when the Galloping Ghost crashed killing Jimmy Leeward. Some just don't "get it".

Indeed, thank God such people are around and have been around to inspire.

those around to instruct the unworthy. LL

So a friend says: "cheer up things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure as hell Things Got Worse!

...now I've never gone 400mph around the pylons at Reno, but I gotta think once you have, the thought of wasting away in a nursing home while your brain turns into tapioca pudding has to be pretty terrifying...