AN ILLUSTRIOUS HISTORY

The “Big Bossman” Tigercat was conceived as U.S. Navy Bu No. 80503. The aircraft began life as a F7F-3, and it rolled off the Grumman plant assembly line at Bethpage, New York, being accepted on July 31, 1945. It was ferried to the Lockheed plant at Van Nuys, California, and converted into an F7F-3P photoreconnaissance model on August 2, 1945. It then headed to Cherry Point, North Carolina, assigned to VMD-954, a photoreconnaissance unit. Later, it was assigned to VMD-354, and that unit was later redesignated as VMP-354. Next, it found its way to an aircraft pool in San Diego and later with VMP-254 at El Toro, California. From 1949 until 1954, it is unclear where 80503’s travels took it, but it did serve with HEDRON and 2nd MAW in 1951, complete with an “LL” tail code and modex number 12. In 1954, it was placed into storage at NAS Litchfield Air Park, Arizona, being a relatively short Marine Corps nine-year stint for Bu. No. 80503. In 1956, it was stricken from military service.

Most likely around the late 1950s, Union Steel took possession of the aircraft and sold it to Ace Smelting in 1961. Then in 1962, it was sold to Mr. Calvin Butler, who, in 1967, sold it to TBM Inc. of Sequoia, California. TBM Inc. owned the aircraft from 1967 until 1981, where it served as a spare-parts donor bird for four other F7F fire-fighting aircraft. That was a blessing because the borate chemical composition corroded the four flying F7F airframes. Mike Bogue bought 80503 from TBM in 1981 and later sold it to Robert Waltrip in 1985. In 1989, Waltrip registered it as N800RW after a ground-up restoration. During this period, it sported an RW tail code and was eventually placed on display at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas. After four years of intense negotiations, an agreement was eventually reached, and Mike Brown bought the plane from the Lone Star Flight Museum in 2002. The aircraft had been on static display for eight years, and it took two months to prepare the aircraft for airworthy flight before it was ferried from Galveston to Ione, California. The Tigercat adopted an MB tail code with a large number “1” below, complete with VMF(N)-513 Nightmare squadron markings.

Today, it is owned by Rod Lewis of Lewis Air Legends in Texas. It is now painted in overall silver and sports the name “La Patrona,” with a RL tail code.