Maty12 wrote:
OD/NG wrote:
Not going to happen. That aircraft needs a LOT of work to make it airworthy again, far exceeding Kermit's willingness in time, money and/or effort to put into it. I've heard some people familiar with its condition say that it needs, in essence, an entirely new ground-up restoration to get it to where it really needs to be to sustain a long-term flying program. I predict the B-26 won't fly again until it is under the custodianship of its next owner. Unfortunately the same can be said for the vast majority of his collection, especially the ones in storage.
By the way, and I'm sure you know this - a new paint job or movement of flaps and/or other systems has no bearing on whether something is about to be restored and/or flown again. Long term statics are repainted all the time. POF does this frequently with new paint jobs on their static aircraft every 10 to 20 years or so, especially the ones kept outside.
Sad to hear it, but it's always good to be informed rather than have false hope I suppose. Do hope we get an airworthy Marauder at some point, but chances are pretty low it seems, since Kermit's seemed like the most likely candidate.
Yea, it's sad that there are so few prospects for an airworthy example. The only 3 "wild cards", and best hope for a flying candidate is one of the following:
1) The Collings foundation has long wanted an airworthy Martin B-26 to add to their collection and national tour. If anyone has the resources to do it, they do. Unfortunately, with the crash looming long in their future, they can no longer give passenger rides and will have to settle all of the lawsuits stemming from that. With the potential tens of millions in the legal balance, and a revoked ride program, I'm guessing that Collings won't have the stomach to take on such a massive project for a long time, if ever.
2) Pat Rodgers' project. This was actually for sale a while back on Platinum's website. It did not sell and the listing has been withdrawn. There are only a handful of people in the world who would be in a position to complete that project back to airworthy condition. It would be massive - probably in excess of $10 million or more to complete. With some of the "movers and shakers" in the warbird world scaling back or disappearing, interest in this will probably have to be generated from a very wealthy "new-comer" on the warbird scene. Here is an old article on it:
http://warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/m ... -sale.html3) Somebody negotiating to buy one of Tallichet's static examples. He has several mostly complete airframes, with several being on exhibit at various museums under long term loan. With really nobody left in the Tallichet family who has a huge passion for warbirds, I see a lot, if not most, of his remaining collection eventually being sold off in the future.
Two big issues with the B-26:
1) It is extremely rare with few examples and even fewer parts availability. Missing pieces will have to be built from scratch or recovered from crash sites in the wild. Both are massively expensive and difficult. With a relatively "simple" fighter, this wouldn't be as much as an issue, but the B-26 is a large, massively complex aircraft and the majority of the restoration would have to be accomplished that way.
2) It doesn't have the notoriety, fame, or glamor of the other bombers. The B-17, B-25 and B-29 are much more popular. Even though the B-26 had the lowest combat loss rate of any bomber in the war, it suffered early on in "bad publicity" from its poor training record and the infamous "one a day in Tampa Bay" fiasco. All of its problems -which were mostly training induced - eventually got resolved. Because it never had it's "shining moment" in a famous raid, battle or conflict, it has largely been forgotten by the public and the history books. This translates into extremely little interest in it from either the general public or people with the means to bring one back to airworthiness.
I've never seen a B-26 fly in my life and I hope someday to be able to!
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