Warbird Information Exchange

Came into Tulsa a while back.. AA A/C/ Cleaners washed and buffed it









IMG]http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii195/Hemiman/D5.jpg[/IMG]

Beautiful!!! Thanks for posting those shots!

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

Beautiful images and what A lovely bird!

Here is a little bit of useless trivia:

In the first photo you can see a 737 tail sticking out of what is now called Hangar 2. That hangar, and it's three mates, were built as a Modification Center in WWII. The majority of the YB-40 aircraft were converted from B-17Fs in that group of hangars. Many a B-24 rolled in or out of that set of doors, and the primary reason AA moved their maintenance to Tulsa was the existence of those four hangars.

Scott

Not at all. I love reading these bits of trivia!

Interesting info on those old hangars, thanks for the trivia lesson.

There's not too many things more handsome than a really shiny Hydromatic dome.....mmmmm

Yep...If those hangars could talk.. I worked 737's , 767's and DC-10's in that hangar!!

She's a beauty! Do they fly her around to airshows? Does AA own and operate her?

Amazing looking aircraft. I got the chance to see this one at Thunder last year and was impressed! I also noticed it has clipped wings. Any reason to why this one has it? I would assume that this lovely looking bird would be as authentic as possible.

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Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

She's owned by the Flagship Detroit Foundation.

http://www.flagshipdetroit.org/

They have received some good help from AA, and there are AA pilots that fly her, but she is not owned by AA. The folks there do some good work, and have done a great job of flying her as a tribute to AA's heritage and commercial aviation in general. I know that they have discussed remedying the clipped wings, but I don't recall why they haven't yet.

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

Excellent images, Hemiman. My favorite is the detail shot of the R-1830. I love mechanical detail images, radial engines are my favorite and I like to take self portraits in shiny prop spinners.

Doug Ratchford, 'Canso42'

And speaking of interesting photos, David Krull, what the heck is that on your avatar?????

Canso42

Canso42,

The Flagship Detroit is actually powered by Wright Cyclone 1820s--AA specified Wrights when buying the DC-3. Also, notice that the cabin entry door is on the right-hand side of the aircraft, most DC-3s were built with the door on the left. The right hand passenger door is a dead giveaway that a particular airframe was an AA bird originally. The Russian copies generally had them on the right as well.

An interesting bit of trivia--Detroit was parked next to a 757 being fitted with winglets in the hangar photo. One of the DC-3 crew pointed out that Detroit had the '50s equivalent of winglets, called "speed tips". I don't think they intend to put stock tips on her--he said she was actually quite fast for a DC-3 due to the speed tips.

Scott

D-oh! You caught me there 2nd AF. You'd think I'd recognize a Cyclone by now. Looking closer the short cowlings give it away also. I never realized the door differences. Sounds like this is a unique example among survivor DC-3s. BTW the first a/c I got to work on at Lone Star was the Continental DC-3 there. Greased the mains and almost knocked the oil cooler off with my head.

Canso42