Doc Sold?

[mike furline]

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Boeing-B ... a619d28ec4

[B-29 Super Fort]

Speaking of China Lake, are there any B-29's in storage there for possible restoration?

Super Fort, there are a few B-29's bits and pieces left at China Lake, but not a full restorable airframe like Doc or Fifi. Biggest piece is likely B-29A "Here's Hopin" which is a partial airframe in the museum storage yerd. A few other partial airframes out on the range but with major damage from weapon tests.

Easy to spend many hours on google maps trying to spot what is out there.

Thanks

[b747cf]

Here are a few pictures of Kermits B-29 these were taken this last weekend.
They are at his Oak Hill storage.









[imghttps://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XGjIg4P9VCg/UTKHvbrQYyI/AAAAAAAAI_g/fl164WPMQPk/s912/IMG_0537.jpg?gl=US][/img]



Mark Fidler

[T-28mike]

That looks like Myrtle. He has two more B-29's in desert storage just in case.

[Iclo]

His B-29 was dissassembled after a tentative of ferry flight right ? In what conditions was the plane at this time ? What's the the exact cause of the abord of the ferry ?

[Steve Nelson]

I don't know if the aft fuselage at FoF is Myrtle, or one of Kermit's other airframes. I saw it last summer, and the center and aft fuselage sections looked rather beat up for a flying aircraft that had simply been disassembled.



SN

[APG85]

What a shame this airframe sits disassembled. It will probably never fly again but it would be nice to see it it one piece even if it is un-restored...

[51fixer]

I don't know if the aft fuselage at FoF is Myrtle, or one of Kermit's other airframes. I saw it last summer, and the center and aft fuselage sections looked rather beat up for a flying aircraft that had simply been disassembled.



SN

He has had more than one so possibly the fwd section which was restored after being damaged is sitting with fus section from another.

[Taylor Stevenson]

What a shame this airframe sits disassembled. It will probably never fly again but it would be nice to see it it one piece even if it is un-restored...

Takes up a lot of hangar space assembled...

That looks like Myrtle. He has two more B-29's in desert storage just in case.

Two complete projects? What condition?

[The Inspector]

I'd wager it was easier to locate another, stock mid fuselage as 'Myrtle' was pretty hacked up to accommodate the X-1 and restoring all that secondary and tertiary structure would make P. Allen think twice at the expense. And there were a couple other fuselages used to make the movie so grabbing all that up at once would be a no brainer, plus adding the previously deleted by NACA turrets and turret structure (if it all could be located) would be a jigsaw puzzle of monumental proportions.

[Wildchild]

I was at FoF today and the Tail from Myrtle is there as well.

[bdk]

Was any of Myrtle damaged in the hurricane?

[bombadier29]

His B-29 was dissassembled after a tentative of ferry flight right ? In what conditions was the plane at this time ? What's the the exact cause of the abord of the ferry ?

I think there were some engine problems but I think the biggest problem was a turret cover blowing open on the fuselage.

I'd wager it was easier to locate another, stock mid fuselage as 'Myrtle' was pretty hacked up to accommodate the X-1 and restoring all that secondary and tertiary structure would make P. Allen think twice at the expense. And there were a couple other fuselages used to make the movie so grabbing all that up at once would be a no brainer, plus adding the previously deleted by NACA turrets and turret structure (if it all could be located) would be a jigsaw puzzle of monumental proportions.

It was not "hacked up" for the X-1. The X-1 mods were actually pretty minor. It was hacked up for the Skyrocket. The aft section of a B-50 was scabbed in to put it back to reasonably stock shape when Ralph owned it. There were no other fuselages used in The Right Stuff if that is the movie you refer to.

Was any of Myrtle damaged in the hurricane?

The nose was damaged, the rest of the airplane was in the desert. Tony and Carl repaired the damaged nose and it went to the Sun n Fun museum for a few years and now is at FOF.

[The Inspector]

His B-29 was dissassembled after a tentative of ferry flight right ? In what conditions was the plane at this time ? What's the the exact cause of the abord of the ferry ?

I think there were some engine problems but I think the biggest problem was a turret cover blowing open on the fuselage.

I'd wager it was easier to locate another, stock mid fuselage as 'Myrtle' was pretty hacked up to accommodate the X-1 and restoring all that secondary and tertiary structure would make P. Allen think twice at the expense. And there were a couple other fuselages used to make the movie so grabbing all that up at once would be a no brainer, plus adding the previously deleted by NACA turrets and turret structure (if it all could be located) would be a jigsaw puzzle of monumental proportions.

It was not "hacked up" for the X-1. The X-1 mods were actually pretty minor. It was hacked up for the Skyrocket. The aft section of a B-50 was scabbed in to put it back to reasonably stock shape when Ralph owned it. There were no other fuselages used in The Right Stuff if that is the movie you refer to.

Was any of Myrtle damaged in the hurricane?

The nose was damaged, the rest of the airplane was in the desert. Tony and Carl repaired the damaged nose and it went to the Sun n Fun museum for a few years and now is at FOF.

The movie I was talking about was 'The Last Flight of Noahs Ark'

[T-28mike]

Lots of questions to try to answer.

Kermits two "spare" airframes were fairly complete, sans many small parts that were removed by other organizations as use for spares / to complete their displays. and parts were removed by movie companies and souvenir hunters as well. Both of kermits china lake airframes had the vertical stabilizers removed by cutting them off about 2 foot above the bottom. Kermit was primarily after wings, tail cone and what spares he could get in order to restore Myrtle. They were obtained as part of a trade with the Air Force Museum back when they did that. IIRC it involved a Nieuport, Duck and ? in kind Kermit received the EP-35, ? and "all the remaining B-29 Airframes on the North Range at China Lake" I remember there was three airframes available, and had the team from Lowery been 1/2 hour later, they would have missed the deadline, and Kermit would have got T square 54 also. As it was we towed all three several miles through the desert over the one weekend that we had to clear them from the range. We had to dig pits to jack up the aircraft, install wheels that would hold air, and tow them many many miles. It was a long weekend. The two airframes were disassembled and shipped to Carl's place in the desert. (Aero Trader had one advertised for sale on their web site)The third went to Lowery AFB, now at MOF IIRC.

If I remember the story correctly that Kermit told us about the one flight of Myrtle it went something like this:
Kermit wanted to get it to Stockton to primarily get it away from the enviroment at Oakland, with the added benefit of it being "easier to work on" at that airport with more suitable facilities available.
The FAA was going to allow only one attempt at the ferry flight. The wing corrosion was a major concern to them. Myrtle had major intergranular corrosion in the wing skins (among other places).
One engine failed shortly after take-off. Strike 1
Top turret (fwd I think) began to behave like it was going to depart the aircraft.
A second engine was begining to show signs of imminent failure, so the decision was made to RTB (rather quickly). Since the FAA refused to authorize a second attempt, the only way she was leaving was on a truck.

There was evidence of the modifications needed for the D558 on the fuselage. I can't remember exactly where, I will have to go through photo's of the disassembly to refresh my memory. We finished getting her out of Oakland several months before the big earthquake. We traveled the stretch of interstate that collapsed on itself everyday.

We disassembled Myrtle, and shipped the fuselage to Florida (Miami at that time), as Kermit thought it would make a nice display, and he would begin restoration of the fuselage first. The remainder went to storage at Carls.

Hope that helps.