I don’t think that article reflects the accuracy of how T-121 wound up in color polka-dots.
As a former H&P employee, what was explained to me was that T-121’s captain, Bill Blakeman, a.k.a. “Igor Schwartz” was based at West Yellowstone Montana late ‘70s or early ‘80s.
On a side note, anyone who knew ‘ol Bill knew he was quite a character, he loved to have fun. He flew B-17s for Black Hills Aviation when they were still based in Spearfish SD, and later went to work for H&P in the very early ‘70s and flew the Privateers and C-119s. He passed away in October of 1997 of cancer.
Anyway, T-121 was the only H&P Privateer that was painted white. The other six were bare aluminum with orange trim. Igor didn’t like the way that big white airplane looked and decided to do something about it. The way he saw it, that particular airplane had definite Wonder Bread potential; polka dots would help break up the whiteness he so disliked. Plus he knew full well that it would send Gene Powers into orbit.
With the help of the West Yellowstone Smoke Jumpers, (and also to help deflect who in fact the real culprit was), Igor found some cardboard and began making several many circle patterns of different sizes. Hand in hand—at night no less—Igor and the smoke jumpers worked and painted that big Privateer until the finished product emerged—beautiful in Igor’s eyes, and just how he envisioned.
Gene Powers was less than impressed; we were told he personally flew into West Yellowstone early the next morning to investigate. He soon came around, however. Gene had a pretty big soft spot for Igor, because had it been anyone else, it might have had a different outcome. Igor knew he could get away with it on two fronts: 1. Blame it on the smokejumpers, and if that failed, 2. he knew darn well there wasn’t a thing Gene would do or say to him. Anyway, that was the story we all heard at H&P.
Rest in Peace Bill Blakeman
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