Steve Nelson wrote:
Those guys at Pima are the Energizer Bunnies of aircraft restoration!
Fortunately, it looks like they're not planning to paint over the glass on the O-52. I wonder if the same can be said for the B-36 and Marauder. I understand it's a necessity for outdoor display aircraft, especially under the desert sun, but I think it makes the aircraft look "toy-like."
SN
Steve,
The O-52 glass won't be painted since it is going indoors. The 36 is staying outside unless one of you has a few million bucks burning a hole in your pocket, so its windows will be painted. The Marauder is planned for indoors so again no paint. The kind of paint we use is relatively easy to remove. Well maybe not easy, it involves razor blades, swearing and sometimes blood but it does come off. Witness the aircraft in the new hangar, several of them spent years outdoors with the glass painted out now you can't even tell it was ever there.
Quote:
maybe this is a stupid question but. . .why put the $$ into restoring an engine for a plane that will never fly again (O-52) ? It seems like you would just do a cosmetic job on it and save the $$ for something else.
Tom P.
Tom,
It actually wasn't all that expensive. Most of the parts that went into it were already laying about the place and it was in fairly decent shape to begin with. I suppose it could be run in theory, the volunteer who worked on it has a lot of experience with engines and pays great attention to bringing them as close to operability as he can, but it didn't get the kind of inspections and treatment an operable engine would get.
But it does look good don't it?
James