New York City Police J4F Goose 2024-11-23

[Mick]

Mick submitted a new resource:

New York City Police J4F Goose - A skin for Mike Stone's Grumman Gose

This is a skin for Mike Stone's Grumman JRF Goose. It was a former Royal Navy plane returned to the U.S. Navy and then passed on to the New York City Police Department, where it served from 1947 to 1955. A Goose in a close approximation of this livery resides in a museum hangar at the former Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn where it was based while in service.

Included is a model file that has the 3D model visible from within so you can look out the windscreen and side windows as if in a...

Read more about this resource...

 

[huub vink]

Thank Mick

 

[Mick]

This one took some figuring out and a bit of guesswork. I found artwork in Aeroplane Monthly, photos of the museum plane and screenshots of someone's MSFS2024 paint job, and none of them were quite the same in detail. As we know, artwork and model paint jobs sometimes reflects artistic license, speculation or error, and sometimes so do museum restorations. One disagreement was the registration; those in the artwork and on the museum plane differed. Besides different numbers, the prefix differed. I followed the art because it has the NC prefix, which I thought more likely for the post-war period than the museum plane's more modern simple N prefix, which I think might be that aircraft's current registration rather than the original plane's. Also in conflict is whether or not the registration and POLICE were on the wings. I think they probably were on there but it's just a guess, perhaps at least partially influenced because I like them there and their absence made the wings look rather blank.

 

[normb]

Nicely done! And thanks for the background info. That makes the scheme even more interesting.

thanks
normb

 

[leuen]

Thanks for uploading. I guess the aircraft was already based at Floyd Bennett when it was in operation.

Bernard

 

[Mick]

Thanks for uploading. I guess the aircraft was already based at Floyd Bennett when it was in operation.

Bernard

Yes it was. At least the real NYPD plane was. I don't think the plane in the museum is the same one, as the registrations are different. I think it's probably another airplane painted up as the NYPD plane, but with its own registration on the tail. The NYPD has had an aviation unit since before WW2 and I'm pretty sure they still do, but now they fly helicopters. Floyd Bennett Field still exists but it's not an airport anymore, it's a public recreation area. But much original infrastructure still exists and the museum is in one of the vintage hangars.

 

[leuen]

Thanks Mike. Meanhwile I found this site here, where are shown the helicopters you mention above.

https://nypdhistory.com/aviation3/

There are still sceneries of CGAS Brooklyn available. I use some of them for vintage and classic eras.

Bernard

 

[zswobbie1]

Great find & story, Bernard.

 

[Mick]

Mystery solved! I found a black & white photo of the plane outdoors on the ramp with several early-1950s light civil airplanes visible in the background. It must be the real, original NYPD Goose. It has the period-correct NC registration and it does have POLICE visible under the right wing, which doesn't prove but strongly suggests that the registration was under the left wing and both on the upper wings. So it seems that the painter of the MS2020 plane got it right, though the wing graphics look to be slightly smaller than they are on that repaint and my imitation of it.