Whatever happened to the thunderbolt prototypes?

[Tboltguy]

So I’ve been wondering a lot lately, whatever happened to the old thunderbolt prototypes? The ones with the red and black stripes and oval shaped rotator boxes.

I read a couple unconfirmed things about how someone may have found part of a rotator box on an old nuclear weapons testing ground, but I’m still curious, whatever happened to them? Are there any still around? Does federal have one in their warehouse just boxed up? Is there one in some obscure museum somewhere?

I’ve decided to go on a quest to research and find what happened to these. If anyone has any info, please let me know. You can email me at [email protected], PM me, or leave a comment on this post.

Thanks in advance, Milo

[CD_Siren]

As far as I know, all of them got scrapped possibly during the 1950s - 1970s.

[Brendan W]

There were rumors a long time ago of parts from one allegedly surfacing at a former nuclear test site, but I do not believe anything else has surfaced to back this up.

[jacob585]

There were rumors a long time ago of parts from one allegedly surfacing at a former nuclear test site, but I do not believe anything else has surfaced to back this up.

Even if they are at some site, its gonna be impossible to get near, or get them at all.

[Tboltguy]

Update: I've emailed Federal to see if anyone may have any information, I'm currently awaiting a reply.

[Ohio_Man]

Paperwork will be your friend here.

Being company property they should have asset numbers. They may even has insurance policies being demonstrators. I'm not sure if Federal has archives that stretch that far back but you never know. My mom is still in the Lowes' system and she's been dead for six years.

Look into receipts and stuff if you can. Being a demonstrator they probably have stats from testing sites. They may have been scrapped but even if they were there should be a receipt for that. That would also tell us the yard and the time.

I hope you get an answer. It's probably wherever Jimmy hoffa's hiding

[JasonC]

Update: I've emailed Federal to see if anyone may have any information, I'm currently awaiting a reply.

Nobody there knows anything. You'll be lucky to get a reply stating as much. Emailing them about a prototype siren that existed nearly 70 years ago is a very fruitless endeavor.

[Tboltguy]

Update: they emailed me some info about the thunderbolt series, but it was just 4 PDFs of manuals for the different thunderbolt series'. I'm gonna try to find someone who worked there at that time or who might know.

[uncommonsense]

Update: they emailed me some info about the thunderbolt series, but it was just 4 PDFs of manuals for the different thunderbolt series'. I'm gonna try to find someone who worked there at that time or who might know.

I'm just going to warn you that the Thunderbolt came out nearly 70 years ago...

[Ohio_Man]

If someone at federal who remembers the first thunderbolt still worked there they'd be nearly 90. People can point to other people. Paperwork tracks everything. That siren probably had a build receipt, an insurance policy being a demo unit, waybills tracking where it went and at least an asset tag.