Volunteers have been feverishly working on the restoration of the museum aircraft, many of which have been outside for decades. Our Grumman A-6E Intruder has been displayed outside since it’s retirement nearly 32 years ago, and the weather and birds have not been kind to this historic airframe. Our Restoration Team will be cleaning and reapplying the stencils and markings.
The Intruder is on loan from The National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola FL. On 7 December 1994, the aircraft was flown into the former Quonset Point Air Museum in Rhode Island upon retirement from VA-34 “Blue Blasters”. In October 2021, HAM volunteers disassembled and loaded up the jet for transport to Hickory NC. The jet was reassembled and cosmetically restored and then placed on display in May 2022.
BuNo 155629 was accepted in September 1968 as an A-6A variant. It went through testing with NATC and VX-5 before being assigned to VA-165, VA-52, VA-115, VA-42, VA-35, VA-65 and then finally VA-34. The USN retired the Intruder in 1997 after the USMC retired them in 1993.
The museum has been closed since the end of December and will reopen in the new hangar later this Spring. Details will follow as we move closer to that date!
