Warbird Information Exchange

I recently came across two articles on line about a Seattle busnessman who died in April 1990 after which the Museum of Flight acquired from his estate four "mint-condition vintage airplanes" which included a B-17F Flying Fortress, a Grumman Goose, a Howard DGA-15 monoplane and a Stinson Reliant float plane.

The articles can be found here:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900622&slug=1078495

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900516&slug=1072092

That Boeing model B-17F-17-BO Flying Fortress, USAAC serial no. 42-29782, is still registered as N17W and has since been extensively restored to 98% "original" military condition and is now known as the "Boeing Bee" on display at the MoF.

From what little I have been able to dig up about this guy Robert Richardson, he owned an airplane-parts company called University Swaging Corp. in Seattle. He was also apparently on the Board of Directors of the Museum of Flight at some point.

The thing is, I don't recall ever hearing this guys's name in conjunction with a Grumman Goose before. I've also never heard of a Grumman Goose at the Museum of Flight and I can't now find any record of which Goose it was or what happened to it. There is not a Goose currently listed in any of the MoF's display collections or on-going restoration projects.

Does anyone here know anything more about the Richardson/MoF Goose or what happened to it?

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

I cant tell you anything about the goose but I remember the name Bob Richardson, pretty sure he was known as "bomber Bob".
The B-17F now known as "Boeing Bee" used to be known as "Kathleen", and I remember her being in Geneseo NY back when the national warplane museum was there before all the problems there. "Kathleen" also had "Fuddy Duddy" (B-17G) there to keep her company, man those were good days....I cant remember a gruman goose being there in geneseo though.

Oh forgot, the B-17F was also in the 1990 memphis belle movie.

Robert (Bob) Richardson was owner of a cable swaging company hence his real nickname Swage, that's what everyone called him.
University Swaging did most of it's business in the Seattle/Alaska fishing industry, not in aviation, so you won't find much looking there.
His B-17F, N17W got the name Kathleen during the shooting of Memphis Belle, before that it had none.
IIRC it was in Geneseo because it had an engine problem on the way home from the filming and Swage decided to leave it there in a hangar for the winter rather than having it sit outside in Seattle, he never flew it again.

I knew Swage pretty well, he was on the Board of Directors at The Museum Of Flight (TMOF) while I was working there, but I knew him from before that.
I met him one day while he was working on the Goose, he invited me in to take some photos of it when it was sitting outside Foreign & Domestic on Boeing Field where he kept it.
He was a scruffy looking overweight middle aged dude in jeans and a flannel shirt with Red suspenders & a 3 day beard, I thought he was a mech. or maybe the pilot.
I got a huge surprise when I asked who owned it and he said "me".
He was a hard businessman with a gruff exterior, but once he accepted you, a kind man who gave me a lot of good advice and promised me a lifetime's worth of Goose rides over the years that due to schedule conflicts I never got to collect.

Swage figured in one of the best days in my life and one of the worst.
One of the best was Christmas Day 1988 when he called me up and said "We're flying the B-17, if you want to go get your butt down to the Museum".
From a dead sleep in Seatac to Boeing Field in 35 minutes !
We were up for about 2 hours and I got 45 minutes flying it from the right seat, what a Christmas present.
It was colder than a witches ..... heart since it had no heater, but what a blast.
One of the worst days of my life was the day we got the word he'd died of a massive coronary.
They'd found him on the bathroom floor, he died in the middle of shaving the previous day.

As for the airplanes, Swage loved round engines, all of his airplanes had them.
The Stinson, Howard and Goose were willed to TMOF, the Stinson SR-5 & Howard DGA-15 were both already on loan and on display and the Goose was still being flown.
The B-17 was still owned by the family after his passing however and TMOF bought it from them with some pretty strict rules.
Among them was that it was not to be flown unless being moved specifically from one airport to another and the family approved each flight prior to that flight and that flight only.
There were to be no joyriding or proficiency flights, or passenger hops, that's the main reason it doesn't fly.
In effect the airplane is grounded unless it absolutely needs to be flown.
As far as I know, it's flown about 4 - 6 times since he died, from Geneseo to Seattle and a couple trips back & forth from Boeing Field over the hill to Renton Field were it was originally kept and restored.
It's now in a hangar on Boeing Field and probably won't fly again.

Now Rajay, as for the Goose, you should actually know it pretty well.
It's N9750Z C/N B-32.
Swage owned it for several years and until he got the B-17 it was his favorite airplane.
Like I said it was willed to TMOF and then sat outside for about a year while they decided what to do with it.
There was no room for it inside and it didn't fit the future display plan.
It was decided to sell it to help raise funds to buy the B-17.
One day a few weeks after that decision was made a family came through in a LAKE Amphibian and I was giving the pilot a little gentle jazz about flying a LEAK (as I called it) and asked him why he wasn't flying a REAL AMPHIB like a Grumman.
He said he didn't know of one for sale and I pointed out the Goose.
He asked if he could look at it and I got the key and gave him the $1.00 tour and within a month it was gone.
I think you know who bought it (I won't mention his name, I later got to know the owner and respect his privacy).

I think that should about tie up the loose ends and solve your mystery.

Bob "Swage" Richardson ......



And the Goose ......

_________________
Avoid that sinking feeling -- Check the hull plugs on your pre-flight.

Well, that didn't take long.... Thanks everyone! I just figured that with a B-17F Flying Fortress involved in the story, someone had to know more about it. Bob Richardson sounds like quite a character - I'm sorry to hear that his obviously interesting life was so tragically cut short.

I was certainly aware of the more "recent" history of N9750Z - the last 20 years or so, but hadn't ever seen anything about its past. I don't think that I've gotten around to buying copies of its official records from the FAA Aircraft Registry archives in OK City. Also, when I just double-checked it on Chris Bell's reincarnated version of Eddy Haynes' Goose Central Web site, it was one of the many Gooses for which they did not have a dedicated history page with additional details.

I do very much want to learn more about the history of this particular Goose. Not only has it been around a very long time (and still going strong) but it's also one of only two G-21 series aircraft with the McKinnon retractable wingtip float mod that I have ever seen with the boom-mounted wingtip navigation lights that wrap up and over the retracted floats.

The only other one was the very first McKinnon model G-21C conversion - N150M, serial no. 1201, that was converted from Grumman JRF-6B (G-21A) serial no. 1147 in 1958 and which had been previously registered as N709 with the Fish & Wildlife Service in Alaska from 1946 until 1957.

Even the second "real" four-engine McKinnon G-21C, i.e. N3459C, serial no. 1202, which was converted/built only a year later in 1959 (from ex-USCG JRF-5G s/n B-78 and which had been previously registered in Hawaii as N5623V) ended up having the later-style "wingtip" navigation lights mounted in the front of the floats themselves. Guess that should "date" the conversion of N9750Z to 1958 as well, but I'll have to order copies of its records from OK City to confirm.

And gee, Bill, did your description of "Swage" remind you of anyone else? Guess you crusty old "characters" just naturally stick together, huh? And I'm not sure that I had heard that you used to work at the Museum of Flight. Very cool! Long way from lower Louisiana however - did that have anything to do with how or why you ended up in ID?

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Another name that once graced the Geneseo skies. I remember in my 1988 VHS tape of the Geneseo airshow the narrator was explaining each B-17 and with one he mentioned was "F model, Bob Richardson, Seattle Washington". Nice to put a face to the name. Too many people are no long with us that helped make the hay day of Geneseo!

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Shop the Airplane Bunker At
www.warbirdbunker.com

I believe Bob had his B-17F at the 1988 Geneseo show also, although that was the year before filming "Memphis Belle" and it was still in it's natural metal and red trim colors. Great man and a neat guy!
Jerry

_________________
"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Uh Rajay, not so fast there grasshopper.
As you well know when it comes to the Goose (or almost any Grumman amphib), there's often more than meets the eye.
I have a shot of N323 (C/N 1191) with some form of "over the float" stalk mounted tip light AND a series of shots of N9750Z from 1964 with the lights on the nose of the floats as per the norm for McKinnon retracts.
When & why the change to the "over the float" stalk lights ..... no idea.
It had them the first time I saw in 1980, so ...........

I was at TMOF for 4 years from 1987 - 1991.
Regarding the move from NOLA to SEA, too many reasons to list here & none pertaining to the subject matter, but after 18 years in Seattle we'd finally had enough damp & gloomy skies and needed a change.
My wife was offered a job in the Twin Falls area and we jumped at it (with no regrets).

Bill (Moi, crusty ? I resemble that remark)

_________________
Avoid that sinking feeling -- Check the hull plugs on your pre-flight.

Interesting! To me at least. I've been needing a new pet project. That'll give me something else to look into.

Thanks!

Note however that I did qualify my statement that it was only the second such installation that I had ever seen. I never said there were absolutely only two. I also said that the time frame estimate was a "guess" based on the characteristics of the two "real" model G-21C aircraft McKinnon "built".

But I did also just look up some photos of the other Goose that you mentioned and at least in the photos I found, it did not have the stalk-mounted nav lights. It's a big photo so I won't try to hot link it directly here: http://www.g73s39s44online.htmlplanet.com/images/goose_n323.jpg

Of course, I doubt that anyone here would "mind" if you wanted to post the photos you mentioned so that all could see...

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Rajay, sent you an email, Photobucket seems to be having a snit.

Bill

_________________
Avoid that sinking feeling -- Check the hull plugs on your pre-flight.

I was just surfing, following a story about the F35 Lightning II to the P38, and onward, when I got to wondering what happened to Bob's B17 and Goose. I stumbled on this post. It's a bit of an old thread, but I thought I'd revive it because I knew Bob Richardson since I was a little kid. My father knew him through business and they went on quite a few fishing trips together, several of them in the Goose. Later, I worked for Bob at University Swaging for a few years, right out of high school and through college in the mid-late 80s.

Bob did come across gruff at first, but he was one of the nicest, kindest guys once he got to know you. And, you're right, he was full of good advice. He inherited his original business from his father, University Boat Repair, I think it was called. It was on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, part of UW fisheries is there now, I believe. He bought a used rotary swaging machine from Boeing surplus. Bob, a longtime employee and a UW student who was working for him figured out how to use it and started making cable assemblies for sailboats.

By the time I was at University Swaging in '84 to '88, there were about two dozen of us working there. The longtime employee from the Boat Repair days and one other fellow worked in the Marine division that made cables for sailboats and the fishing/marine industry. All of the rest of us were in the aircraft division, which was probably 90-95% of the company's business at that point. The student who worked for Bob had got him to bid on some Boeing jobs. He's now the general manager of U Swage and Executive VP of Primus Corp., of which U Swage is a division. I believe there are now several hundred employees.

I worked in the aircraft division, mostly making cable assemblies. Lots cable assemblies for 727, 37, 47, 57 and 67s. Lock-clad assemblies for back-up controls. The bulk of University Swaging's business, though, was by then (and is) swaged tube assemblies for all sorts of control and structural applications. Boeing was the big customer, but I recall also working on some tubes for Lockheed's C5, as well as some other, more unique, applications.

One day, I wandered into the office, looking for Bob. "He's not in for a couple of days," I was told. "He went to buy another plane."

"What kind?" I asked.

"A Bomber."

"No, seriously, what kind of plane did he get?" I asked.

"He's buying a B-17."

He loved his planes. Hard for me to say which he loved most - the Howard, the Goose or the '17. A huge radial engine, off the Howard, sat on the 2nd story deck in U Swage, right outside the door to the aircraft cable room. Once he acquired the B17, he spent countless hours, travelling around the country, looking for parts for it. His office was full of airplane parts. He was also trying to collect a full set of crew flight gear, so I remember a number of bomber jackets hanging in his office. He had a large picture of the WWII B17 production line at Boeing hanging in there too.

That picture you posted of Bob, Mr. Widgeon, is a great one. I seem to remember it being used at his memorial (?). I also felt like I'd been kicked in the chest when I heard he was gone. Lots of fun stories about Bob - he was quite a character. On the way to a fishing trip in my uncles RV (a converted "bookmobile") he managed to spill ketchup on the white T-shirt he was wearing. Very melodramatically: "Don't worry! It's only a flesh wound!".

Bob's (I think of it that way) B17 was not just in Memphis Belle, but also 1,00 Plane Raid and Tora Tora Tora. It also did duty as a crop duster and firefighter.

Like I said, before the B17, hard for me to say which was more his "baby" - the Goose or the Howard. I don't recall the Stinson from before, though I know it was his. Maybe before my time.

Anyway, Mr. Widgeon, I'm curious what happened to Bob's Goose. The way you wrote it up, I think I might have a guess, but if you'd email me to confirm, I'd be appreciative.

Rajay, Bob's Goose was featured in the December '82 issue of Air Progress. I have a copy of the magazine that I got when it came out. If you email me, I'll send you a photocopy of the article.

Here's the title page, scanned. The Goose on Lake Sammamish:



From the same article, Bob on the wing of the Goose:



This is me (just a kid!), sitting in the '17. Photo taken by Bob:



I have a handful of other photos of the plane, including a couple of the interior, if anybody wants them. That's Bob, off on the right hand side of the photo, in the bomber jacket, facing away the camera:



Working in aircraft cable at U Swage, I got to make some replacement cables for the B17!



Here's the Goose, from the same day at Paine field:

The Goose is registered to someone in Idaho...
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry ... rtxt=9750Z

Probably not who I thought, then.

I saw a Goose on the Pend Oreille a couple years ago. They were doing some sort of graduation thing for a local high school. Must have been that plane. Got to see it take off from the river was awsome.

Maybe, but I doubt it, Bob's old Goose N9750Z has been hangared for a few years now and hasn't flown in a while.
There's another Brown & White Goose N778 based in Billings MT. that flies into that area pretty often.
I'd bet you probably saw N778.

_________________
Avoid that sinking feeling -- Check the hull plugs on your pre-flight.