TBM Avenger - Part 6 of 6 - Built in NJ

In my wanderings around the internet as I was researching the TBM Avenger for this series of articles, I happened upon some information (with pictures) about a restored TBM-3E Avenger that is currently on display at the Naval Air Station in Wildwood NJ. She is a beauty, isn't she? I thought that writing a bit about this particular TBM-3E Avenger would be a nice way to wrap up this series of articles.

What I did not know when I started out researching the TBM Avenger is that some 7,500 TBM Avengers (including the subject of this article) were manufactured in New Jersey at General Motors' Eastern Aircraft's Trenton-Ternstedt plant outside Trenton, NJ. After retiring from service with the US Navy in 1950, she saw service with the Canadian Armed Forces until 1960. She spent the rest of her flying life converted for use as an Airtanker in Canada registered as CF-MUD. For more information on the history of this TBM-Avenger, see this page from the National Park Service. Note that in this history, this TBM is referred to as flying as tanker 312 (T312).

CF-MUD saw service with three air tanker operators in Canada: Skyway,  Conair, and Forest Protection Limited (FPL) , flying as T612 and later as T12 (there is no reference here to CF-MUD flying as T312). See the entry for "BU#" 86180, "CDN REG'N" FMUD on the FPL's TBM tanker list page. If you go the FPL TBM tanker purchases, sales and losses webpage, you will see that FPL purchased FMUD from Conair in 1977, and sold her in 2001.

There is a publicly available facebook page about FPL TBM Avengers (no facebook login required) from History of TBM Avengers FPL on Facebook