Warbird Information Exchange

I've been looking through the "archives", and found two sets of negatives, but only 7 prints. Anyway, here they are.

B-17 and B-23 in the woods off the south side of the airport



West side of Tamiami Airport, C-54 on left, and in the background a C-46 that tumbled across the airport



Inside the main hangar, Dewoitine D-26 center, Morane Saulnier MS-230 left, and I think that's the P-38 center section in the back



Boeing 100 on left (the rebuild on this is almost done in Nevada), and one of the two Sopwith Pups on the right



The other Sopwith Pup on the left, and Bucker Jungmeister on the right

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Off the south side of the airport was the workshop and storage bays. Here is inside the main storage bay. The fuselage of Fertile Myrtle had been stored along the far wall, and our apartments were upstairs. Sometimes at night when we were bored we'd come downstairs and sit in the pilot's seat of Myrtle, or crawl through the tunnel. The nose was moved over to the museum not long before the hurricane, not sure where the rest of the fuselage was at this time. Gloster Metor center section in the background. My station wagon in the foreground

I left the day before with a girlfriend and came back the day after, so didn't ride it out.


View from outside the storage bays, looking southwest. My apartment was the nearest one upstairs, the wind came from the east, blew out the windows, blew off the roof, and generally made a mess of things. The big storage bay in the previous photo is at the far end.



I'll see if I can find more prints-



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I was there a week or two before the storm, with my about to be new bride (now exwife), & I was showing her the Corsair "Angle Of Okinawa", that I Crew Chief-ed on when it was owned by the late Merle Gustafson.
I was absolutely astonished when I found out it was the least damaged aircraft in the hangar after the storm.
It seems the corner of the hangar it was in protected it. IIRCl, it does have some twisting damage to one of the wing attach points (the wings were folded without the crossover attach support on).
I remember talking to some of the guys after the storm, & was told "they were proud they got everything in the hangar but the B-17, & 23, & then the hangar doors blew in, & the roof came down"!
Robbie

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As I remember, the Grummans did a good job of holding up the trusses, the Avenger and the Duck. Everybody on the airport seemed to think that if the airplanes were in hangars they'd be OK. Not so, of course...




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Would they have had a better chance outside so they could just belly land somewhere?

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Does anyone know which railroad line this was that the B-17 went over and the B-23 landed upon?

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

I'm pretty sure it's CSX's rail, but I'm not 100% certain on that. The only other operator down there is the Florida East Coast.

There are a few shortlines all over Florida. I was wondering as I saw the photo of the B-23 sitting stop the tracks when I worked at a Florida newspaper the day after the storm hit (we of course devoted a lot of ink to that storm), I had no idea the B-17 was right next to it at the time. I'd always wondered what line that was...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

I was speaking of that specific area around Tamiami. After a little more research, the line in question is a spur that runs to the CEMEX Krome aggregate quarry and concrete plant. They have a small switching operation at the plant itself, but I do not believe they run anything out to the connection with CSX.

Given the winds associated with Hurricane Andrew, there really was no safe place in its path. That was one terribly vicious storm. It may have not been as big as Superstorm Sandy in terms of square miles affected, but where it hit, destruction was almost completely assured.

What happened to the Avenger?

The Avenger has been flown for a few years now at FOF (since 2009), following the completion of repair/restoration work (though it has yet to be painted). As mentioned earlier, the Boeing 100 is just about finished (as 7 other Boeing 100, F4B, P-12 aircraft also continue to advance along at the shop where it is being rebuilt (of which one of the F4B's and one of the P-12's are also destined for FOF)), and the Pups seen in the photos above were both rebuilt and are awaiting eventual final completion/display (it sounds like one will be left un-covered for display, while the other will be finished up and flown).