Warbird Information Exchange

Here are some photos for you guys. All the fuselage panels are in the paint shop along with the rear fuselage half. Wings and center section are going in next. Lot a skin work on this one. This one is a Waco Field vet and the Army No. is 41-21386. 985 is by Aero Engines and I declined on the chrome kit - went with the factory look with black push tubes and Cad 1 hardware.

Mark D

That is looking good Mark!
Are you going to refinish the airplane in the blue/yellow scheme?
Good luck on sealing the fuel tanks.

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If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

That's really a wonderful looking restoration Mark! As best I can tell, there aren't really a lot of BT-13's left floating around out there...not like the AT-6 anyway. Only two or three dozen that are actually airworthy. Congrats on creating what will surely be a very authentic standout amongst that exclusive crowd.

I had four derelict BT-13 fuselages that I recovered out of Texas back in the 1990's that went to a guy named Mark Sisson in Mesa, AZ. Once he and his crew hauled them off, I pretty much lost track of them. Always wondered what ever became of those old crates. Any chance your project came out of Arizona?

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Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Looking immaculate, nice job.

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

That is just stunning! Makes we want to get going on my BT. Where did you get that baggage compartment?

Dan
warbirds@shaw.ca

and attention to detail! well done

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EVERYTHING that CAN fly should be ALLOWED to FLY!
IWO JIMA'S best narative..."GOD ISN'T HERE"
http://www.amazon.com/God-Isnt-Here-Ame ... 0976154706


P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.

S: Took hammer away from midget.

Mark,

Is this for you or are you doing it for a customer? As always and evidenced by the Cornell we have here in Waukesha that you and your Dad did, AMAZING work!

Thanks for sharing and keep us up to date when you can.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Hi Guys

To answer some of your questions:

The plane will be in silver - owners request. He did not want to be polishing and some of the leading edges which are the original skins, were not that nice for polishing. Lots of scratches and what looked like hail damage but it was just from being 66 years old.

This plane came out of the New England area years ago. Can't remember exactly where, though.

Dan the baggage compartment was reproduced from a sample


We have reskinned about 80 percent of the plane. Here are some other photos of the engine cowls and what they looked like before and after just to get an idea of what we had to do:

That is really going to be a fine machine, Mark. I'll trade ya for our project:




I'm still tracking down paperwork/identity/prior owner on this jewel. These pictures were taken a couple of years ago. The airplane was wadded up by a Kansas tornado in the sixties.

There hasn't been enough "in progress" reporting on WIX lately, so keep us updated often on '386.
Scott

WOW! Looks great! When will she be flying?

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Taylor Stevenson

Simply outstanding, Mark.

The rest of us will just sit back and watch the awards roll in.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Care to reproduce another one? That's just stunning.

I have an original baggage compartment and got to see the one Mark had made. The one that Mark had reproduced is an EXCELLENT copy.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

My dad seemed to like flying the "Vultee Vibrator", but I don't think he ever flew one that's as nice as this one is gonna be. Keep up the great work.
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

Mark,

Newengland?????? Would it be Vermont????? My uncle had over 15 at one time. Went around buying up airframes that the duster operators had up here that just wanted the 985 for the stearmans. Just wondering if it was one of his.



He just has the one now.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005