This is a photo from our family's collection. My grandfather, Ronald Simeone, is third from the right. He worked at McDonnel Douglas in St.Louis, Missouri, and he worked on these aircraft. He worked at McDonnel Douglas from just after the end of World War II until he retired many years later. He also passed away many years ago.
I'd like to identify the aircraft -- I know it's a Banshee, but not entirely sure it's an F2H-2. I believe they did test flights out of St.Louis, so perhaps this is one of the test craft ?
I'd also like to identify the most likely time period this photo was taken. I believe it to be between 1945 and 1950.
And although it's probably long lost to history, it would be pretty neat from a historical context if anybody could identify any of the others in the photo.
Sadly, nothing is written on the back of the photo, and the writing over the front was added by me to this digital copy of the photo.
I've asked these questions on actual aircraft forums... and gotten no answers. So I thought I'd ask here. I know this will seem off-topic to some, but I can tie it back into aviation modelling by saying that I recently acquired an old Testers F2H-2 Banshee kit in 1/48th and I'm thinking of making a commemorative diorama based on this picture. Now I just have to find some usable 1/48th scale figures that can be modified to match the people in the photograph!
