Attention!!! Beijing P-61 is gone!!!!!

Lightjug · **Posted:** Thu Sep 27, 2012 1:05 pm

After not hearing anything for a while on this topic and another trip to Beijing in the plans, I thought I’d put on my detective cap and head out to see what was happening with the Beijing Aviation Museum aircraft. What can I say - I love a good mystery. Actually I didn’t really need a detective cap, just Mike Henniger’s Aerial Visuals locator on page one of this thread, Google Maps, two Yuan for the Beijing subway and a couple of hours to spare. After getting off my stop at Xitucheng Station. I walked west two or three blocks looking for Zhichun Road heading north. Hmmmm... it wasn’t there. A gate preceding a construction zone was currently occupying that space. Undaunted, I retraced my steps and headed north two blocks, then headed another two west. Then... I found it. But my initial excitement turned to confusion and disappointment. All I found was a small parking lot full of miscellaneous aircraft parts.

A fuselage here...

...there

... and there.

A wing here.

Some boxes stenciled Pratt and Whitney...

... and miscellaneous bits and pieces all over the place

But as a viewed my pictures later, I realized something. The parking lot in my pictures looked smaller! Go back to Mike’s locator pic which is north up. Now look at my first pic looking south. The parking lot is only a third... if that... of the satellite picture. The building to the left in my picture is new! Are the aircraft inside that building? Have they been moved somewhere else? The mystery continues... unless anyone else has heard anything?

george747 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 27, 2012 1:12 pm

Crew Dog George here,

Next time I go I'll check it out. may get a local ATC controller to help.
Surely i'll get there once or twice this month

George

george747 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 27, 2012 1:50 pm

Crew Dog George Here again,

I went back and looked at your photos along with Google Earth.
Great observations on your part.
You are correct, the lot is much smaller. Counting the parking rows I'd say maybe only a 5th as big as the 11/8/2010 sat image.

You are also correct that the building to the east with the "X" bracing in your photo is not on the sat photo.
From all my visits to PEK I have come to find those are temporary dorm buildings for the construction workers.

And, with the crane in the background (we joke the 'crane' is the Country's official bird) I suspect there is a building being built in what appears to be a vacant lot on the sat image to the south of the parking lot.

As I said, I'll try to get out there on my next visit.

Crew Dog George
www.CrewDogGear.com

seabee1526 · **Joined:** Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:18 pm **Posts:** 459

Maybe the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (love that name) is using it for for carrier quals.

Lightjug · **Posted:** Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:07 pm

george747 wrote:

As I said, I'll try to get out there on my next visit.

Thanks George

Mark

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11324

They probably have the P-61 out for restoration. The galvanized sheet steel canopy was due for replacement anyhow.

Lightjug · **Posted:** Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:08 pm

bdk wrote:

They probably have the P-61 out for restoration. The galvanized sheet steel canopy was due for replacement anyhow.

You would know Sir, you got the best pictures shown in Your Thread Here

gary1954 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 30, 2012 9:42 am

Just went through that thread.....man it would cost a fortune to restore this airframe.....oh wait, the Chinese have most of the cash, and we pay them installments on their loan....maybe it will get a down to the bottom of the corrosion restoration....now if they can just find parts....oh wait!.... reverse engineering....replacement parts made in China...well at least for now its out of the weather.

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11324

I just looked at a B-25 today that flew a few months ago yet had significant corrosion issues to include holes in the lower wing skin in the nacelle area and intergranular corrosion in the spar webs. The point is that most anything that old will have some corrosion, in many cases severe. If you want to talk about exposure, most bombers have spent the majority of their life outside, no different than the Beijing P-61.