Warbird Information Exchange

Is anything happening with the Planes of fame Val? .... I think I heard a while ago that POF was seriously in the process of a full restoration to flying condition. Now that would be interesting to see a Val dive bomber flying. I would assume most of the parts and pieces would be new fabrication. Also I'm quite sure there would be some other power plant installed other than what was original.

They had made significant progress years ago, then stopped. Now they have one guy working on it part time as I recall, so not really a front burner project. Lots of work done but lots to go! POF has a bunch of construction going on right now so I think that is their focus for the moment.

Only one word needs to be said - Diemert restoration. The original plan was to have the plane restored and flying in time for the anniversary of Pearl Harbor - I believe some time in the late 90's or so. Maybe BDK can pipe in with the exact anniversary date it was SUPPOSED to fly. One rumor I heard was that the real Val (not the Tora Val which was subsequently used ) was supposed to be restored for the movie "Pearl Harbor", but once they started disassembling it, they found extensive amounts of corrosion and shoddy restoration work. There supposedly was even auto parts on the plane used during its previous restoration. Because the Val would basically require a 100% major reconstruction/renovation, the Musuem decided to not spend the time and resources to restore it. Museum staff have said that if they could find a major sponsor to front the money they would restore it back to flying condition right away. Apparently that hasn't happened, so it's been relegated to the back burner for quite some time. At the last POF airshow this year, I believe the fuselage was in one of the hangars, with the wings and tailfeathers in storage elsewhere. It has looked like this for nearly 10 years now. I think we'll have a long time to wait as other restorations are taking precedence.

Maybe they need to work with some Japanese group to get it rebuilt. Maybe a Toyota sponsorship or something...

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

You have no idea what the inside of a Diemert restoration looks like.
Even watching the Canadian PBS program doesn't do it justice.
Rich

Actually, it was to be 1991, the 50th anniversary -- or so they were saying around 1988-89 when I started frequenting the museum. At that time they had not opened it up and started working on it. When they got started, the 1991 talk ended pretty quickly.

The Pearl Harbor Centennial would probably be a good date to shoot for.

August