New Addition to Air Museum

Battleship Park Cuban Missile Crisis This RF-8 Fighter jet at the Naval Air museum was to replace a previous model wrecked by Hurricane Katrina. The replacement was one of the spy planes that flew missions during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

by Chad Petri

Published: Thu, December 27, 2007 - 4:21 am CST Last Updated: Thu, December 27, 2007 - 5:47 am CST

Right now, the task is rebuilding the plane. Retired Navy Captain Frank Liberato seems happy to be reunited with an old friend.

“I don't think I was scared, but I probably was,” says Liberato. “You never admit it to yourself or or anybody else that you were frightened it's not part of the attitude of the fighter pilot.” This plane was one of many under his command during the Cuban Missile Crisis 45 years ago. This one flew two missions over enemy territory, almost by mistake. The film on the first mission was destroyed

“Well it just so happens that they put it in the wrong bath and destroyed the film,” says aircraft manager Mike Thompson. “So now we have to get back out and do it again all over.” Thompson was the one who discovered the plane’s history. He says, when the jet arrived, its serial number looked very old. Thompson looked it up and discovered it had flown missions over Cuba.

“Being able to tell the folks that yes, that airplane was there and it did this and here it is that you can look at it right now,” says Thompson. “You can see basically what it looked like on the night it flew.” The plane was still in service 20 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thompson has to remove all the upgrades the plane had since then to make it look like it did four decades ago. The restoration should be done by mid January in Battleship Park.

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