The P-38 flew away from McMinnville and the Evergreen Aviation Museum today. I visited the museum this morning, and as luck would have it, the minute I set foot on the museum floor, I heard it flying overhead. Then I noticed a bunch of people standing outside a door at the front of the museum, so I booked for it -- but it had already passed overhead. If I had gotten there a few minutes later, I probably would have heard it and seen it from the parking lot, and if I had gotten there a few minutes earlier, I probably would have noticed the commotion and had been standing out in front to see it fly by. Oh, well.
I talked with docents and restoration folks at length, and here are some tidbits to share with you:
Supposedly they moved the P-38 across the highway to McMinnville Airport last night (Tuesday, May 23), and it flew over to the Aurora airport, where it apparently spent the night. Not sure about that, though. It flew back to the McMinnville airport, from which it flew out this morning. And it was supposedly headed to Sacramento, and then presumably on its way to Florida.
Regarding the "new rebuilt engines," supposedly the pilot, upon hearing who had overhauled the engines that had been in the plane during its stay at the museum, refused to fly it with those engines in the plane. Thus, they spent somewhere around $200,000 for the two newly rebuilt engines.
Things might move pretty quickly from this point forward -- the B-17 is next, with the work being mainly to recertify the engines. It sounds like they have already replaced fuel lines and such. The whole "wing spar" issue apparently is not an issue -- apparently it was about microscopic cracks in them, and "they all left the factory with those." Presumably they will not keep the plane from flying away.
Again, I spoke to a few different folks, and heard different things -- one saying that the BF-109 would be taken apart and trucked out, and another one saying that the P-40 would be taken apart and trucked out. It sounded like work on at least one of them would start virtually immediately.
There was talk about "replacing the planes" that will be leaving, and the museum "has access to" a number of aircraft that just would need to be delivered to the museum. An F-111 was the likeliest candidate to show up. Also an F-16. The museum has a PBY Catalina that has been weathering badly outdoors, and it might be the most likely candidate to replace the B-17 when it flies away. There are a number of thoughts about exhibiting some of their planes, such as the "century series" jet fighters -- they have an F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105, and an F-106 on the grounds, for instance. Also, they could do a Korean War display, as they have an F-86 going under restoration, and they have other Korean era planes on the ground, including a MiG-15 and a MiG-17. There was talk of bringing some of the planes that have been stored outdoors into the museum buildings, like for instance the MiG-29, which apparently "was painted with house paint." The main museum building has something like a dozen "sport planes" on display, and there was definitely thought that a lot of those could be moved out, so some far more significant aircraft could be displayed.
And so on. Again, all of this was just "what I heard" from the docents and restoration volunteers, and "what I could remember" from what they told me. I hope this helps, and I'll try to get some pictures posted of some of the aircraft I have mentioned in this post.
Oh, and to reply about the Planes of Fame, that's where some of the folks thought the P-38 was headed. I believe the pilot is associated with POF.
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