Throwback Thursday: Fighter Planes

We'll share a vintage University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) photo each Thursday on our homepage as part of the popular "Throwback Thursday."

Check back each week for a photo celebrating UNO's history, and to learn more about what's happening on campus and in our community, and future plans for the university.

Visit the UNO Criss Library Flickr photostream for even more photos.

• This week's photo features students working hard on a fighter plane during their aircraft engineering studies in 1949.

• Read on below for information about this plane and two others that were on campus post World War II.

• Today, UNO's Aviation Institute is regarded as one of the best in the nation, claiming the coveted Loening Trophy in 2012.

From the Winter 2010 edition of the UNO Magazine

The end of World War II was a boon to many universities not just in surplus students, but also in surplus goods, courtesy the War Assets Administration.

For Omaha University, that meant three fighter planes — a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (pictured), a Fairchild PT-19 and the remains of a Stearman PT-17. Veterans and other students used the planes in aircraft and mechanics classes.

The P-47, which originally cost $50,000, was purchased from the WAA for $150 plus ferrying and insurance charges. It was a gift to OU’s Division of Technical Institutes from T.L. Combs and Sons, Jewelers.

Then-OU student Dick Leed (’48), a former P-38 pilot with the 13th Air Force in the Philippines, flew the P-47 fighter plane from Altus, Okla., to the Omaha airport in 1946. The two-hour, 500-mile trek was the easy part. Getting it the last 10 miles to campus was another matter.

Omaha’s Police Department gave the university permission to tow the plane on Dodge Street — at 3 a.m. on a Sunday. With three motorcycle policemen running interference and Dodge traffic diverted to Douglas Street, the plane left the airport and journeyed up Carter Lake Boulevard to 16th and Dodge. From there it was on to Elmwood Park Drive leading to the university. Then came some nifty maneuvering, the P-47’s 40-foot wingspan requiring wiggling to and fro to dodge the numerous Elmwood Park trees.

Getting the PT-19 to campus was an easier affair. Also donated, the plane was flown from Lincoln to a flying field owned by OU instructor William Durand — Durand’s Sky Ranch at 84th and McKinley Streets. The plane was then dismantled and transported from the field to the University by truck.

Enrollment in the training courses peaked immediately after the war when many veterans desired mechanic instruction to obtain civilian aircraft jobs. Three to four full-time instructors were employed to teach the quarterly classes of from 50 to 75 students. But the training ended in 1949, and the planes had a rough go from then on.

In 1952 the Fairchild caught fire during an OU football game, likely started by a cigarette. By the end of its campus stay the P-47 housed a nest of robins in the air duct under its fuselage. The planes were scrapped in 1953.