JimH wrote:
Paint protects from corrosion, even faded paint. Nine O Nine would be much worse for the wear if it spent 25+ years touring without paint. You have to keep in mind the success of the Wings of Freedom tour relies on aircraft being flyable 10 1/2 months out of the year...every day, seven days a week. The balance of the time is heavy maintenance...not polishing parties. Nine O Nine has needed a paint job for the last 5-6 (that's being kind) years but a balance of down time and tour commitments can not be found.
For the record, I would have loved to have painted Betty Jane as Shangri-La right out of the box...BUT the decision to keep her NMF and Betty Jane did not deter riders...and to be quite frank...people still asked why there were swastikas...if it's an Allison...if it was a redtail...if it was a real Mustang...if the copilot fired the guns...where are the guns...why it doesn't have a bubble. I would like to think that we educated the public to a small degree about the Mustang, but public perception of the smaller picture of the air war is being lost and/or diluted by time and the History Channel. And by smaller, I mean the story of Gentile, Godfrey, Reghetti, Hackleman, Outhouse Mouse, even Nine O Nine...bomber/fighter nose art is an insignificant part of history...it is a B-17 it is a P-51...doesn't matter if has staggered guns or no guns...it's a B-17 it's a Merlin. The Memphis Bell, the Red Tails, and Chuck Yeager won the war. This is a summary of why it is so important to tour, and keep this history at the front of the line...even if the paint schemes or airframes aren't 100% correct. We here at WIX are a minority and in the end it is money that makes airplanes fly.
My .02
Absolutely.
What about a satin finish silver paint to reproduce the look of an oxidised NMF bird......?