February 1972
Cape May County Airport is located in the southern tip of New Jersey and has a rich history of Propliner activity dating back to the early 1950's. The airport was a U.S. Navy training base during WWII and transitiioned to civilian control after the war. I first visited the airport in February 1972 when I was stationed at nearby McGuire AFB and had a day off to do some exploring. At the time, the airport was the home to a number of derelict former US Overseas Airlines DC-4s and DC-7s along with a contingent of retired Allegheny M202s that had been acquired by Associated Products of America. During the 1950’s and 1960’s US Overseas Airlines was a large supplemental airline that was headquartered at Cape May County Airport. The airline operated a large fleet of DC-4/DC-6/DC-7 aircraft, many of which were abandoned at the airport when the airline ceased operations in 1964. All of the aircraft have since been scrapped.
Associated Air Products was an aircraft dealer that acquired many retired Allegheny M202's and stored them at Cape May until they were scrapped sometime in the mid to late-1970’s. I visited the airport in the mid-1970s when all the Martins had been painted white and again the following year when they had all been scrapped. The only survivor is M202 N93204, which is currently on display less wings at the New Jersey's Aviation Hall of Fame Museum.
January 2002
I visited the airport thirty years later in January 2002 when the airport was home to a large contingent of C-7A/DHC-4A Caribous. During the late 1980’s/early 1990s Newcastle Aviation acquired the Caribous from around the world with the plan on converting them to turbo-prop power. The aircraft were flown to the company’s facility at Cape May County Airport to await conversion and over the years 20+ aircraft have been stored at the airport. Other than N400NC c/n 240, I don’t believe that Newcastle converted any other aircraft. This aircraft was lost on August 27, 1992 in Gimli Airport, Canada with the loss of three crewmembers. In the mid-1990’s Penn Turbo acquired the Cape May aircraft and rights to the conversion STC. Since then, at least four aircraft have been converted…N302PT c/n 302, N303PT c/n 303, N238PT c/n 238 and N600NC c/n 237. I recently heard that Tony Porterfield/Rampart Aviation of Colorado Springs had acquired the Cape May aircraft and conversion STC from Penn Turbo but I have been unable to confirm this. The company owns N600NC. The following photos were taken at Cape May County Airport on a chilly January day in 2002. Since that time, the large former Associated Products of America hangar has become home to the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum. For a detailed Caribou production list, check out this website http://www.dhc4and5.org/BouRev_12.pdf
Ralph M. Pettersen
November 2020
Photo Credits: Ralph M. Pettersen
