Warbird Information Exchange

Published 4-14-2008

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITER

A group of aging aircraft aficionados with plenty of time on their hands now have a new — and old — project that is testing their skills.

More than six decades after the end of World War II, members of the Florida Wing of the Commemorative Air Force are collecting thousands of pieces and parts of a Navy torpedo bomber and fitting them together to bring the old warbird back to life.

The plane is a TBM Avenger, built by Grumman and used by the U.S. Navy. TBMs were often based aboard aircraft carriers.

"We've got the CD with all of Grumman's original drawings. We've got everything we need to rebuild the airplane. It's just going to take us a lot of time," said Richard "Dick" Russell, a retired United Airlines pilot and a charter member of the Florida Wing of the CAF.

Russell is serving as project manager of the TBM restoration, which is going on in the CAF hangar on the DeLand Municipal Airport.

Russell's research on this particular TBM reveals it was first assigned to the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia. The plane was sent on patrols to search for German submarines skulking along the Atlantic coast.

"Then it went to the Canadian navy and flew off two aircraft carriers," Russell said. "The Canadian navy used it for a number of years, and then it became a fire bomber."

A fire bomber is a plane that drops water and flame retardant on wildfires. Some of the red-colored flame retardant is visible on the plane's inside, which was once capable of holding a torpedo or bombs.

Since the Florida Wing was based at the DeLand Municipal Airport in 1996, CAF members have restored another vintage military plane, a L-17 Navion. The L-17 was used to fly senior military officers and visiting dignitaries in or close to combat theaters in World War II and the Korean War.

The TBM now being restored is one of almost 10,000 built during World War II. Only a handful of those planes — fewer than 50 — are still in flying condition.

This TBM came to the Florida Wing and DeLand from Midland, Texas. The local group had to pay $14,000 to bring the dilapidated plane to DeLand.

"It's not cheap to do these things," Russell said.

No less expensive is finding the parts to restore the plane to its original state. The main body of the plane — fuselage, wings and horizontal and vertical stabilizers — must be augmented by an engine and other pieces and parts, such as the rare ball-turret canopy.

Russell said the Florida Wing found an aircraft-restoration expert in another state willing to trade a ball turret in good condition for another part he needs for his own TBM project.

The propeller cost about $25,000. Myriad other small pieces, including cables, wires and hydraulic lines, await being joined to one another or to something or other.

Some parts are not available, so the CAF must manufacture its own parts, based on the original design specifications.

"You can't get them anywhere," said Don Smith, another CAF member working on the TBM, as he pointed to a pair of bomb-bay doors he and others had fabricated.

Though many of members are quite well acquainted with airframes and engines, the CAF is getting some extra help from working professionals.

"We have a group of Continental Airlines mechanics that are working on this airplane," Russell said.

The TBM restoration is special to Ted Cary, an Orange City resident who remembers his days as a turret gunner on such planes in the Pacific Theater in World War II.

"I was on the Shangri-La when the war ended," he said, referring to the aircraft carrier with the name of the nonexistent paradise.

Cary said the TBMs were used to provide relief to fellow Americans in dire need.

"We were dropping supplies on the prisoner-of-war camps in Japan before we could get in there," he said.

Russell could not say how long the restoration of the TBM will take, but he is confident the old warbird will fly again. Its next missions will be peacetime flights, giving spectators at air shows thrills and teaching the now generation of Americans something about World War II and their history.

Russell hopes for more private donations and corporate contributions to cover the CAF's cost of restoring the TBM and other vintage aircraft.

The Florida Wing of the CAF has a Web site for those interested in learning more about the group: www.caffl.org.