Warbird Information Exchange

Yesterday the Red Tail Project passed a major milestone.
The wing has been delivered to Odegaard Wing Inc to wait its turn in the jig! Depending on how things go for Brent and his crew, it should be in the jig before the holidays and around this time next year we should have a rebuilt wing to haul back to Tri State Aviation to continue putting "By Request" back together.
A big thank you to all who have supported the Red Tail Project!
A few pictures of the event...
Right Wing being loaded:

The Inspector checking out an extension:

John hooking up the trailer:

Eric, Mark, Steve, and John discussing how much of the right wing will be reusable:

The fuselage coming along in the shop. The Motor Mounts will be ready soon.

The Tail feathers coming along..

That is awsome. It looks like they made it along way.

That's awesome news! I think this might realistically show that she'll be flying again by the summer of '09? Thank you for the updated pictures as well, I haven't seen any for quite some time.

How much of the old structure was able to be reused?
Were any significant parts salvaged?

Most of the left wing will be new. We are hoping to reuse 60%+ of the right wing, but won't know for a little while.
Lots of significant parts were salvaged including gear castings and the radiator. We hope to have it back in the air during the summer of 2009.

About 45% of the original fuselage structure was salvaged but the most important thing is that almost all of the bits and pieces in it made it through the wreck. We've been spending a lot of time going through all those components and assembling them back into the fuselage. Some of the big things that don't show in Bryans pictures are: The progress on wiring and hyd systems, the set of landing gear that are nearing completion and a whole host of other small items. As Bryan mentioned the radiator made it through the wreck largely unscathed. By spring we're fix'n to have an aft duct behind it and maybe doghouse in front of it and up top have the canopy and wind screen done. That's about as far as we can go with the structure without having a wing under it.

As Bryan mentioned the right wing looks to be in pretty good shape, more of a repair than a major overhaul or complete rebuild. The left wing is another story. With the exception of some bits and pieces that were salvaged from it, and of course the landing gear trunion that survived (need's some minor repair) it will be a scratch built wing. The hitch is we need to build all the rib tooling before Brent gets too far along. That's going to take some time! We're hoping to have a completed wing by mid to late summer '08. With some luck I think we can aim for a mid summer '09 first flight. Doug Rozendaal thinks earlier...I think he may need to get his purdy pink pilot fingers dirty if'n he's 'spectin that!

We're moving slow but sure. If you're going to the Round up, stop by the Red Tail booth and say hi to the good folks there. I'm pretty sure they will have some hats and shirts for sale for those in the spending mood! I’ll be floating around out there on Saturday…catch me if you can!

John

I am amazed at the dedication of the rebuild. I cannot wait to see her flying again!

It will be an awesome tribute to Don and those who helped her get back in the sky.

I keep wishing every Saturday and Wed night when those lottery numbers kick in and I hit, the first donation will be to getting her back together!

Glad to see the pics, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. We would love to have a lottery winner help us meet our goal and get By Request back in the air, but until those numbers come up, people can still help by picking up hats, shirts, prints, DVDs, etc from the website or the Red Tail Project booth. There will be a booth at The Gathering in Columbus …

I watched Red Tail Reborn on PBS last night (hadn't seen it before) and was struck by the dedication and craftsmanship involved in the restoration of this magnificent airplane. I found this old-ish thread and thought it would be helpful to bring it up again.

edit: If you click on this link, you can find out when PBS will air Red Tail Reborn in your area: http://www.pbs.org/redtailreborn/airdates.html


www.redtailreborn.com

www.redtail.org

www.hemlockfilms.com