N9768Z Scanned from a 35mm slide on behalf of the photographer, who unfortunately did not write the airport location on the slide mount. Michael Hodgkinson did provide some information on this aircraft. Firstly, it is a first generation air tanker and the only Northrop F-15 Reporter to be tanker converted. (This is a derivative of the Northrop P-61 Black Widow. This aircraft was written off in 1968 in one of the epic stories of air tanker ops. On a hot afternoon, fully tanked, she failed to get airborne and crashed through fence and ditch. A taxiing B-17 crew had witnessed the crash, saw it was on fire and called for any tanker headed for the fire to return. An Avenger returned and dropped half it's load on one engine, then dropped on the other engine allowing the pilot to escape. Having been written-off in 1968, good quality images of it are rare.
This photo is copyright by Bernard Schulte Collection.
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