Warbird Information Exchange

Some projects and some stuff from behind the barbed-wire fences at Planes of Fame, Tallichet and Aero Trader:



P-59 - the yellow A-frame device on the wing holds a chain that passes though the wing to the engine bay for lifting the jet engine into place:



A-26 fuselage and lower nose:







Someone asked about the DC-3 in the Tallichet compound:











Martin 202 or 404 nose:



A-20 and B-25 at Aero Trader:





Lockheed Ventura N7483C:





F-100 with a little shrapnel rash:





Picadilly Lilly:





And finally - the great spelling controversy rages on :

Lockheed Ventura N7483C:

Sorry - should be PV-2 Harpoon. Thanks for not dragging me over the coals on that one...

thats a big pile of turbochargers next to the dc-3, I'd be happy with one

Oh so thats what that was. (A-26 lower nose section) Some of us vertically challenged people couldn't see over the fence. Nice pics Chris

I know Pooner or maybe Gary Hilton might know. Is that the same PV the Tony Ritzman flew out from Falcon two years ago?

That P-59 just gives me goose bumps. I just saw the one down in NASM a few weeks ago. They are such a beautiful airplane.

Forgotten Field wrote:That P-59 just gives me goose bumps. I just saw the one down in NASM a few weeks ago. They are such a beautiful airplane.

Me too. I've been following that restoration for a long time. I remember first seeing that airplane in the old outside storage yard behind the hangar at Chino back in the late 70's when it had the second seat in it. I think it was used for VIP transport, ferrying Generals around and such. Too bad they aren't going to keep that second seat so they can give rides in it. Back then, it also used to be painted in the olive drab paint scheme. Somewhere in storage, I have some very high quality color slides that I took of it back then. If I ever find them, I'll post them here.

I'm hoping that they eventually restore the Ryan Fireball as well. Can you imagine seeing that contraption fly?

Does anyone know what the story is on the F-100?

kevin

This was the only photo I took of the P-59 back in '83 when it was a two-seater:



Hope you can dig up a better one!

tulsaboy wrote:Does anyone know what the story is on the F-100?

kevin

It was a drone.
Rich

Bring 'em all over to KVAY- I'll fix 'em...

Robbie

Looks like they used the pop-top portion of a P-38 canopy on that P-59 front cockpit.

SN

Chris wrote:I know Pooner or maybe Gary Hilton might know. Is that the same PV the Tony Ritzman flew out from Falcon two years ago?

Yes.

I can't wait to see the P-59 fly. Steve Hinton mentioned to us that the USAF wants to do heritage flights with it and the F-22. They got behind a few months on the project due to the installation of stainless firewalls, and a full Halon fire supression system. All of the wiring and plumbing is ready. The engines are ready, and have been run in the test cell. They are hanging the left one this month, the second should follow soon after if it goes well. They hope to fly late this year, early next year.

For what it's worth, 50 years ago I was in the USAF with a guy who had flown the first P-59 in an outfit at Santa Ana CA. His observation was that "the best thing about the P-59 was that it only had about a 20 minute fuel endurance!