FOF B24 Joe Pics on Facebook

[Steve S]

Fantasy of Flights Facebook Page just put up some pics of the inside of Joe- their B24. Looks a little rough around the edges and "Well Used" (okay - road hard and put up wet) but I was impressed by how complete and from the pictures seemingly authentic she is on the surface. All the little stuff seems to be present in the interior. For any one that does FB you may want to check it out.

The post alluded to the the fact that they may be considering doing some work on her- but it does seem like it would take A LOT OF DOLLARS, even by FOF standards, to get her in teh air again. Well we can still dream cant we.

[Wildchild]

He's going to have to start hiring more pilots. His problem is that he has too many planes, of which he still keeps buying more (example: autogyro that he trucked in a week ago) and when he flies certain ones, others sit around not running.

Edit: it's so bad he has a Lancaster in shipping crates because he has nowere to put it.

[seabee1526]

Well if he has too many airplanes he could always donate the B-24 to the Air Force at Barksdale and they could in turn donate thier B-24 to the gang up in Michigan...

(sounds like I'm pretty free with other peoples stuff...just wanted to make sure that you all know that this comment was just a joke).

[The Inspector]

As I recall, when Tallichet bought the airplane from the Indian Air Force it was pretty much in military configuration minus a few then current sensitive military pieces.
It was never an ex military gutted and converted to freighter or whatever configuration, it went from 'in service' to collector.
I recall seeing it fly into AIR FAIR @ KPAE one typically cloudy, overcast cool Saturday morning flitting in and out of the clouds in the pattern like some ghostly wraith from Twilight Zone all military markings and the busted top turret glass, just waiting for Christopher George and Robert Lansing to pile out.

[JohnTerrell]

A pretty cool place that if you were to spend the last few weeks there, you would have seen, flown, two P-51C's, a Grumman Duck, a Fieseler Storch, a DGA-5 "Ike", Sikorsky S-39, Fokker D.VIII, Stearman, New Standard, and soon the Pitcairn Autogiro - not bad!

[Travisd80elcam]

Wildchild, would his Lancaster ever be put together to fly? and speaking of Lancaster's, the FHC has the nose of one. Does the FHC have the rest of the Lancaster, that the nose came off of?

Travis

[JDK]

Edit: it's so bad he has a Lancaster in shipping crates because he has nowere to put it.

It'll take more than slapping together. The Lancaster is a project, with mixed antecedents and don't forget a hangar roof fell on the restoration project when it was in previous hands. The problem isn't space but the fact it'll be a major restoration.

As I recall, when Tallichet bought the airplane from the Indian Air Force it was pretty much in military configuration minus a few then current sensitive military pieces.

It was never an ex military gutted and converted to freighter or whatever configuration, it went from 'in service' to collector.

Not quite so - All the Indian air Force Liberators were supposedly wrecked to ensure they would never fly again by the RAF in India as per the requirements of Lend Lease material being either returned or disposed of. The nascent Indian air Force went to a lot of hard work and 'can do' reconstruction to get these aircraft into airworthy and operational configuration as their first maritime patrol aircraft. So while it's true they went from air force to private owner, their earlier history needs acknowledgement, and they are not as delivered from the US factory, but as reconstructed by the Indians.

The Canadian Air & Space Museum in Rockcliffe and the RAF Museum's B-24 are both ex-IAF, and both have a very authentic and original to Indian use interior, with little post acquisition change inside. Externally, both have new schemes.

While there's a long list of aircraft we'd like to see in Kermit's collection either restored or more active, we should first recognise - as TriangleP's put, that he's spent a lot of effort (and cash) to ensuring the collection has a huge storage facility; That's a properly thought out toybox, and it's not all in the shop window. Nevertheless, as John T's mentioned, there's nowhere else you can see that range fly.

Travis, IIRC, the FHC only has a nose, not a complete Lanc. The nose came from TW911, and much of Kermit's project is of that aircraft, ex- Southend Museum. A fun job is trying to disentangle which Lancaster (and Lincoln) bits ended up with which project/s.

Regards,

[Wildchild]

Wildchild, would his Lancaster ever be put together to fly? and speaking of Lancaster's, the FHC has the nose of one. Does the FHC have the rest of the Lancaster, that the nose came off of?

Travis

He wants all of the aircraft he owns to fly again.

His lancaster is the Ex Charles Church Lancaster KB976 that had a hanger collapse in on it.

[The Inspector]

James,
Thanks for the clarification

[Travisd80elcam]

Thanks for the update and clearing up of my question.
Travis

[N3Njeff]

Yagen has a N3N thats a flyer

[b747cf]

Here are a couple of shots of Joe.












Mark Fidler

[peter]

James his Lancaster project is made up of the good bits of KB976 KB994 and a sprinkling of Lincoln possibly as well.. nothing of TW911

[Steve S]

When was the last time she flew

[John Dupre]

While the RAF was supposed to wreck or make unflyable the Liberators that the Indians inherited I remember reading that as the days went on and the RAF types got closer and closer to going home their interest in the project waned and by the end they were simply retracting the landing gear to let the aircraft sit on their bellys and calling it a day. I have also read that in Indian service the primary search system was the Mk. I eyeball. Some of the first Indian flying Liberators needed very little work to become serviceable so it is said. Still it would be great to see these claims confirmed or denied with photos if possible.