RandolphB wrote:
Does anyone know of a company that was (is?) in Stockton, Ca named "Aero Nostalgia"?
In the mid 80's I moved into town and soon after saw a B-25 fly overhead. I dropped what I was doing and followed it to the airport and managed to see it parked at hanger there. Checking with the office, they told me it was at this business and gave me their phone number. I called them to see if I could come see the aircraft.
The aircraft in question was painted blue, with a tiger and the word "Esso" on the front, and was being worked on before going to Austraila. I was told it was only in town a few more days, as it was being filmed for a movie about going to Austraila, and was then told to meet them early on a Sunday morning.
My roomate at the time was a film major and went wild with the chance to meet a working film crew, so we headed out to the airport that morning. The director had worked on "Mad Max" ( I can't recall his name), which was still a very unknown film in the USA. My roomate tried to get the director all involved in talking about film and got nowhere. I spoke to the fellow telling him I hadn't seen a B-25 fly until seeing this one, and we ended up chatting at length about aviation. He was really into it. The day was a blast, and somewhere I have pictures of the event.
The business had a business card that was silver, with a profile drawing of a B-25 on it. Years later I tried to track down who they are/ where. I haven't been able to find anything to speak of about it. So I have two questions:
Does anyone know who this company and people are, and if they are still in business?
Does anyone happen to know anything about the aircraft and where it may be today?
Oh, I know, I know, I know!!!
That B-25 is now at Aero Traders, still in a RAAF paint scheme with the Esso tiger on the nose. I think it may have been purchased by the Yanks Air Museum at Chino.
Jim and Jan Ricketts owned Aero Trader at Stockton. They had a beautiful B-25 called Dream Lover that had suffered a nose gear collapse in 1982 at Reno. I think that B-25 is still around as Old Glory. There was a PBY at the Aero Trader hanger, as well as Bob Reiser's P-63 (the old Tipsy Miss), and a B-17 outside. Milo DeGrassi, for some reason, is a name that sticks in my mind as one of the mechanics.
Anyhow, the blue and white B-25 of which you ask was called Tite P*ssy, and had been purchased by the RAAF Musuem. Esso and Quantas Airlines helped 'sponsor' the flight over, and PBS did a documentry on with with Glenn Ford narrating. They followed the outfitting of the plane with long range tanks, had a nice 'sendoff' over the Golden Gate Bridge with Lloyd Hamilton in Baby Gorilla, Reiser's Cobra, and I think Bob Love in his white Mustang. Then the film crew documented the flight to Sydney.
Overall, pretty nice documentry that I videotaped off of PBS many years ago.
But the Museum in Australia decided to sell the B-25 again, and as I said, it is now in Chino--as far as I know. Not sure whatever happened to Aero Traders, but I'm sure they are long gone.
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