Cold War Plane Won't Return To Fort Worth After All
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – An effort to return a piece of Fort Worth aviation history to its rightful place has unexpectedly failed.
The cold war era supersonic B-58 Hustler was the first ever of its kind when it was developed and built in the 1940's and 1950. One-hundred-sixteen of the planes were built in Fort Worth, and now only eight of them remain in the country.
The Fort Worth Air Museum was set to get one of the remaining eight back home until last week. A city council vote struck down the measure that would have loaned the museum up to $250,000 to transport the plane from an Air Force hanger in Illinois back to Fort Worth.
Executive director of the Fort Worth Air Museum, Jim Hodgson said, "We're stunned because the day before we had signed the memorandum of understanding with the city."
City officials site a lack of confidence in the museum's ability to pay back the loan as the reason for the 7 to 2 vote that killed any chance of the plane returning to Fort Worth.
A statement sent to cbsdfw.com by the Mayor's Chief of Staff Mattie Parker read in part:
"Due to a lack of certainty that the city would be reimbursed for the $250,000 loan required to facilitate the transportation and reassembly of the B-58 bomber, the council ultimately determined it was not in the best interest to use taxpayer dollars at this time."
Hodgson disagreed with their assessment saying "We had fund raising in process. We had a good deal of money already collected; had a kick starter program ready to go."
Hodgson admitted that the time table of the museum's ability to repay the loan would have more than likely taken longer than the remainder of the current fiscal year.
In the end Hodgson simply lamented the situation and said many were heartbroken over losing a piece of history forever.
He added, "I feel really badly for the veterans and people who have worked here in the industry for so long since the 1940's."
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)