Warbird Information Exchange

It would be nice to see it whole again, but even to just re-assemble it for display is not as easy as it appears. The wings (I believe) are still in California and just the cross country shipping (because of the oversize loads) would be extremely expensive. Besides they were full of corrosion, and the "spares" from China Lake birds were not much better from a corrosion / restoration standpoint. When we took Kermit's B-29's apart we had to split the center sections at the centerline and remove all the nacelles (no small task). While this is not an impossible task, it would be a waste of resources to assemble it only to have to take it apart again for restoration.

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Expert:
Ex: Former.
Spurt: A drip under pressure.

IIRC, his Grandfather was involved in the discovery of some very valuable oil deposits. From Wiki:

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

His grandfather, Lewis Weeks was one of the discoverers of the Australian Bass Strait oil fields, and received a royalty from production.
Probably a tiny, miniscule fraction of a percentage point, but the fields produce about a third of what all of Texas does, so...

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Understood. The key word was "wish". It's a great plane with a neat history. I'd actually like to see her restored as a "drop bird". Maybe someday...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

I see many lifetimes of work in those storage areas.They need to start training the next couple of generations of sheet metal guys as well as systems guys or there will be no one able to restore these birds down the road.

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Hang The Expense

A shame to see the AT-11 sitting there. I remember when it flew all the time.

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http://silverplate1945.smugmug.com/AVIATION

excellent point!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

That looks like the Kansas Duck? If so, myself and a couple of other guys were there (Kansas) in 2012 getting a bunch of pics of the various parts/pieces and identifying what was magnetic.

One of the parts tags.

Fascinating selection, many thanks! So much easier than walking the route ourselves, too!


What turned out to be a very smart move. And I'm personally very glad to see where this revenue going out of Australasia gets used for. But I'm biased.


THIS is very interesting. An ex-Canadian Fairey Swordfish, it has lost the exhaust collector ring (at the FRONT of the cowl) for the Bristol Pegasus engine, but the rarely documented Canadian mod of the heater unit that sat inside it is thus fully visible. Fist ever image I've seen that shows the structure. Were used on Lysanders and Bolingbrokes as well. Don't thank me, I know you're excited too.


The Ki 61 projects are being done at Precision Aerospace Productions, of Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia.

Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Kermit posted some pictures of his workshop on Facebook yesterday. Looks like some new (large) metal forming equipment has arrived. He said that should allow them to concentrate on more than one restoration at once.

Also, you can see the tail of his P-35 in one of the photos.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

He has a Lavochkin La-11? Since when?! I better ask him!

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Zac in NZ
#avgeek, modelbuilder, photographer, writer. Callsign: "HANDBAG".
https://linktr.ee/zacyates

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid, 20/08/2013
"The more time you spend around warbirds the sooner you learn nothing, is simple." - JohnB, 24/02/22

He's had it a couple of decades, it came out of China.

He told me via Twitter it had come from China and that it's incomplete - I'm surprised he's had it that long as I only knew of The Fighter Collection's example in the West.

One day! Til then, it's a truly stunning collection he has in there.

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Zac in NZ
#avgeek, modelbuilder, photographer, writer. Callsign: "HANDBAG".
https://linktr.ee/zacyates

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid, 20/08/2013
"The more time you spend around warbirds the sooner you learn nothing, is simple." - JohnB, 24/02/22

The explanation given on his tours was this: His grandfather discovered the oil in an area the oil company said was unobtainable and refused to pay him for his work. The company said since they were never going to profit off of it, they weren't going to pay for finding it. He countered by pushing for a contract that would pay him a percentage of the profit permanently if they ever did start to use it. He figured sooner or later they would have the technology and the need for it and would actually go after it. Time proved him right and they did so. He had already set up his estate in such a way that his income would be divided between his children and grandchildren. I believe they said Kermit was in the process of building his first airplane as a teenager when he first saw money from the deal. I'd like to give HIM credit for managing his money well and investing. How many people that inherit at this level ever have anything to show for it....?

I have never been "jealous" of any persons position in life or what they did for a living, but I have to say I am certainly envious of Kermit Weeks' day-to-day schedule. I could seriously take a sleeping bag and a couple changes of clothes and work / hang out in his hangars for a month. As long as someone brought me some coffee every morning, I could even forgo that whole "food" thing. Food would just be a time waster at that point.