Effort Underway To Save Piece Of Fort Worth Aviation History
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FORT WORTH (CBS11) - A piece of Fort Worth aviation history could be headed to a scrap yard by August, but a local grass roots effort is underway to change that.
Jim Hodgson, the Executive Director of the Fort Worth Air Museum is leading a push to recover one of the last remaining Cold War era bomber planes called B-58 Hustler.
They were the first ever supersonic bombers in the world.
In the early 1950s, 116 of them were built in Fort Worth, but only 8 remain in different parts of the country.
Ironically, none are in Fort Worth.
"Tens of thousands of people who are residents of Fort Worth were involved in the design, the maintenance, and operation of the airplane," says Hodgson, who has joined forces with city leaders and a local B-58 enthusiast group to try and recover the 7th B-58 plane ever built.
"We want it as a tribute to those who were involved with it then and as a point of inspiration and community pride for people who are here today," adds Hodgson.
The plane is sitting in a museum in Illinois at the moment and it would cost upwards of $150,000 to bring it to Fort Worth.
Hodgson says the clock is ticking to raise the money needed before a piece of history is gone for good.
A Facebook group has been created for those wanting to help bring the B-58 back to Fort Worth.
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