Silly thought: "Home" for flyable seaplane warbird

[famvburg]

Seeing the Do 24 pics made me think of something. IF there were flyable seaplane warbirds (not counting the Mars fire bombers, they're different), let's say the Emily that was (is?) at Norfolk, Do-24, Martin Mariner & Marlin Ar 196, Kingfisher, Seahawk etc., where would the most likely all congregate here in the US? Surely salt water is not the preferred choice. Maybe someone would have conjured up a permanant type of beaching gear that they could be flown off land?

[JDK]

Fantasy of Flight has the US' largest allegedly airworthy flying boat... Then there's Oshkosh, where Week's Sunderland and the Do 24 ATT both operated.

There will be an active Kingfisher, almost certainly on its float operating in the US one day I hope.

The Emily's back in Japan, I think, and I'd love to see an Arado Ar196 zim by. And a Mitsubishi Pete....

[jdvoss]

Former RAAF Kingfisher A48-2 (BuNo 5985 & NEI V20) is located at Precision Aerosapce in Wanagartta, NSW. It is configured with the single float and appears to be a in highly restorable and potentialy flyable condition. A recent photo can be viewed at www.adf-serials.com. Click on "RAAF Series 2" submenu then scroll down to A48 Vought-Sikorsky Kingfisher. Seems to me I read where it was for sale (?) for $ 1M US ..or was it $ 2M...

[JDK]

Near there, jdvoss, good spot. - That Kingfisher isn't for sale AFAIK, and is currently in the restoration to fly process. It's part of a multi aircraft restoration project for clients various. It's at Wangaratta Victoria Australia. Precision don't currently encourage unofficial reporting or visits, but when I was there last, it was one of the restoration-to-fly projects I was most excited about.

Cheers,