Warbird Information Exchange

During the annual inspection of the B-24 “Diamond Lil” this off-season, we made the determination that “Lil” needs some new feathers. Due to weathering, the cloth-covered rudders, ailerons, and elevators required new paint which also meant replacing the underlying fabric. During this process, we also felt that now would be a good time to replace the flight control cables that connect the control surfaces to the pilot’s yokes and rudder pedals.
Unfortunately, this is an extensive project that will preclude our beautiful B-24 from being able to travel the country with the Air Power History Tour this summer. Our maintenance team takes the utmost care of all our squadron aircraft and we feel the need to take these steps now in order to ensure that the world’s only flying B-24 is in tip-top shape so that it can continue to fly for generations to come. We are currently anticipating this project to take an extensive amount of time to complete - possibly up to 5 months.
We are contacting all supporters who have booked a flight this year, and we will continue to update everyone on “Lil’s” progress throughout this process. As always, we could use additional volunteer assistance in the hangar to help with this large undertaking. If you are unable to support us with your time, any financial help would also be greatly appreciated. The unexpected loss of revenue from “Lil” not being out on tour is going to hit the squadron hard. All of the income made while touring goes directly to the operation, support, and maintenance of our Squadron aircraft so that we can continue to share them with the American public. Please visit us at http://www.diamondlil.org to donate directly to “Lil” or join the Diamond Lil Century Club which provides a variety of fun perks for those able to provide a monthly, sustaining contribution.
Finally, the show must go on! We must continue the Mission! We will continue to tour this summer and you can still see the world’s most famous flying B-29 Superfortress “Fifi”, P-51 Mustang “Gunfighter”, WASP T-6 Texan “Nella”, RC-45J Expeditor “Bob”, the PT-13 Stearman and others during our scheduled stops listed on our website at http://www.airpowersquadron.org.

I am only in my 20s but someday I will fly it at airshows. I am getting rich really fast writing software and so I can afford to do really stupid things like put all my money into warbirds.

Randy: Are you guys going to make the cables inhouse, or have them made for you?

I am only in my 20s but someday I will fly it at airshows. I am getting rich really fast writing software and so I can afford to do really stupid things like put all my money into warbirds.

If anyone wants to head down to KRBD and check out the progress or volunteer you're certainly welcome to. There was talk about doing some live-streams or videos or photos on social media of the mx being performed through the summer, so we shall see how that develops. Again, personnel dependent.

Randy, I'm just down the way at Ambassador if that's something I should come snag some shots. Just need to know when things are happening...

I am only in my 20s but someday I will fly it at airshows. I am getting rich really fast writing software and so I can afford to do really stupid things like put all my money into warbirds.