Warbird Information Exchange

Adam White of "The Restorers" fame is putting together a documentary on the Red Tail P-51 C Mustang project. There is a video preview that can found here....
http://www.redtailreborn.com/

Does anobody know the the completion date yet or how far along they are on it? I'm also looking forward to seeing it back in the air. Thanks for the video trailer.

Cheers,


Lynn

As far as I know, the plan has been to have it ready in time for the Mustang gathering at Reno next summer, although I did hear talk at the Minnesota Wing's airshow of having it ready in time for next years show in May! Needless to say this all depends on funding being available to keep the project moving along. You can check out photos of the work going on(and make a contribution if you'd like) over at the newly redisgined Red Tail Project website.

The fuselage is now structurally complete, it was on display at the Minnesota Wing's airshow a few weeks ago. The wings are awaiting funding before they get sent out for rebuild.

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Dan Johnson

Hi lynn,

Right now the fuselage structure is about 70% complete. We still need to repair the windscreen/canopy and all of the structure under the lower longerons. It sounds like more work than it really will be since much of those components and substructures came through the crash relatively intact. The aft duct can be repaired, the doghouse will need to be scratch built, radiator and oil cooler survived without a mark and the forward scoop will need to be fabricated from scratch. Right now while the structure is relatively open, we are installing as many of the systems and system components as possible without painting ourselves into a corner! If you are interested in seeing pictures of our progress, check out our redesigned website at www.redtail.org I sent the new webby a nice cross-section of pictures starting from exactly one year ago to as late as only a few weeks back.

As always, the projects completion date is subject upon funding. It was our hope to get her back in the air by May of '06 so we could attend the Mustang Round up in June. That goal is not yet out of reach but it is beginning to look questionable. The next Warbird Digest will feature another article on the Red Tail Projects progress and also lend a little insight as to what goes into rebuilding an airframe after a forced landing.


As always, thank you for your interest in the Red Tail Project,

John Beyl
CC Red Tail Mustang[/url]

I stand corrected. I took the fact that the fuselage was out of the jig and on a work stand to mean the structural work was done.

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Dan Johnson