Moving a decommissioned Vietnam-era airplane isn’t as easy as it looks.
It took a little Air Force ingenuity, some Army tenacity and the right equipment, but the old A-7 D Corsair II aircraft that has been at the now-closed Martin Airfield near South Sioux City for more than two decades finally achieved lift-off Wednesday afternoon and will eventually come to its final resting place in Freedom Park later this year.
Members of the Bravo Company 1-171 Aviation Regiment out of Davenport, Iowa took the plane on a 10-minute journey from Martin Airfield to the 185th Iowa Air National Guard’s Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City, where it will undergo a restoration project before being moved to Freedom Park later this summer.
“It’s getting some new paint, some body work, and a big part will be cleaning up the armament pods and some new landing gear and tires, so it will look like a new airplane when it’s done,” Marty Hogan, a Siouxland Freedom Park board member, told the Dakota County Star Wednesday afternoon after the plane was lifted back to the 185th.
The original plan was to move the plane back in October, but weather and the need for a special sling that could be used to lift the plane caused a change in plans.
Even today, as the sling was being connected to the plane, some issues caused about a three-hour delay before a CH-47 helicopter slowly lifted the aircraft off the ground an into the air. It hovered about 300 feet off the ground and slowly traveled southeast across the Missouri River to the 185th, where work on the plane will begin in the coming days.
“We had some issues with a sling, and with a little Air Force ingenuity and some Army tenacity we got it figured out,” Hogan said.
The A-7 D Corsair II plane was built in 1970 and flew from 1977 to 1992, designed for air support and interdiction missions. The plane, which weighs almost 10 tons, eventually found its way to Martin Airfield in 1995 and its title was held by the South Sioux City American Legion before being transferred to the 185th, making Wednesday’s move possible.
Hogan said he was not sure of an exact date when the plane will come to its final resting spot at Siouxland Freedom Park, but was optimistic that it would be sometime this summer.
