Kingfisher Restoration?

[Curtis Block]

All this talk of Ducks has me thinking waterfowl.

About six months ago I was out in Florida and stopped by Fantasy of Flight. When I was there, I was told that Kermit Weeks has a Kingfisher that he is planning to have restored to flying status.

Are their any other Kingfishers being restored to flying status?

Are there any other airframes that would have the possibility of being restored to flying status?

[warbird1]

Yes, several. There is a production line down at Wanagratta at Precision down in Australia that is restoring 3 or 4 to airworthy state. I'm not sure who the owners are though. One of the Wix members, Setter, used to give periodic updates on them, but I haven't heard anything about them in several years. He posted a whole photoalbum of pictures of the assembly line. I'm sure someone here has a link to it. Does anyone have an update on them?

Also, Yanks Air Musueum in Chino has the remains of a Kingfisher that will eventually be restored. The last time I was out there, they hadn't started on it yet. As is usual with most of Yanks' projects though, they never fly. It will undoubtedly sit pretty in one of their closed hangars after a full authentic restoration.

The only other possibilities would be if Cuba ever became democratic. There's at least one or two down there that I'm sure some enterprising warbird collector would snatch real quick and bring back to the States. I guess since Castro's brother is the "de facto" president, we might have to wait a while, though.

[Owen Miller]

Who has the link?????? I'd sure like to
see the photos......

[JDK]

Hmmm.

From personal viewing there is the proposal for a production line at Wangaratta, one fuselage was under rebuild at the time of my last visit. Hoping to pop by soon, will update if I can.

There's a full write up of Precision Aerospace's work* in the latest (I think - DaveM2?) Classic Wings, recommended for any serious warbird nut.

Setter's link:
http://community.webshots.com/user/setter126007

http://rides.webshots.com/album/446443090ltwEaI

Thread:
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... php?t=4864

(*Can we say multiple P38, P-39, P40, F4U, O2SU, Ki-61, A-20, kids...?)

[kalamazookid]

Yes, several. There is a production line down at Wanagratta at Precision down in Australia that is restoring 3 or 4 to airworthy state. I'm not sure who the owners are though. One of the Wix members, Setter, used to give periodic updates on them, but I haven't heard anything about them in several years. He posted a whole photoalbum of pictures of the assembly line. I'm sure someone here has a link to it. Does anyone have an update on them?

I think I read somewhere that one of these Kingfishers will be going to Jerry Yagen... anyone have more info?

[JDK]

I think I read somewhere that one of these Kingfishers will be going to Jerry Yagen... anyone have more info?

Yes x2.

[Curtis Block]

I can tell you that I didn't expect there to be maybe more than 1 other. This is great. I don't know why I like the Kingfisher so much, but I do. I'd love to see some recent photos and I can't wait to see one in the air again.

[kalamazookid]

Are any of the Wangaretta Kingfishers the landing-gear variant or are they all float equipped?[/quote]

[DaveM2]

James

Yes the latest issue has info on these:

http://www.classicwings.com/currentissue.html

Curtis PM me your postal addy.

Dave

[Canso42]

I have a friend in Pennsylvania who is quite a Kingfisher buff. In the '80's and early 90's he was doing research on them for a book. His name is Dave Lusk but I haven't heard from him for several years. We became acquainted through my newspaper coverage of the Battleship TEXAS restoration in the late eighties.
I had a short piece published in the spring 1991 Naval Hist. magazine about an OS2U recovery snafu on the Mighty T. I kept hearing about the incident while interviewing veterans of the ship and had enough matching stories to consider it reasonably factual.
Maybe some of you WIXers in the NE could try to contact Dave. He may even be a lurker.

floats up (oh, sorry, 2u's dont do that)
Doug Ratchford-Canso42

[JDK]

Are any of the Wangaretta Kingfishers the landing-gear variant or are they all float equipped?

All Kingfisher were built with interchangeable gear and float setups. At this stage of the rebuild (the fuselage of the first Kingfisher) it's irrelevant. Once finished, they'll be able to be fitted with wheels or floats. I've not seen any gear parts for Kingfishers, but Precision have floats to rebuild.

The first one's still a long way away from flying IMHO.

Canso42; I'd be very interested in contact with Dave Lusk. Can you PM any details please?

[bdk]

As is usual with most of Yanks' projects though, they never fly.

The Staggerwing and Electra have both done quite a bit of flying. The B-25 has also flown on occasion and they did fly the F-86 after they got it. Can't say what the plan is for the Kingfisher though. As you say it is not yet on the front burner.

[Curtis Block]

Unfortunately Chino has no water.
If it had that, and less cows, and anything, I say, anything, more interesting than an airport with warbirds. I probably would have taken one of the jobs offered to me down there. Yanks included.

[bdk]

Less cows = more houses = no airport. Careful what you wish for! Next you'll want to get rid of the flies and Flo's will go out of business.

[warbird1]

Less cows = more houses = no airport. Careful what you wish for! Next you'll want to get rid of the flies and Flo's will go out of business.

Does anybody still go to Flo's? It was a great place to eat in the 70's and 80's, but something happened there. Last time I went a few years ago, I wasn't too impressed. Being that it is such a warbird icon, however, I'll probably go back, just for old times' sake.