Warbird Information Exchange

Any pictures of either that you wish to post here?

I think so -- my plate's kinda full right now and they might take a bit of digging. I think I have a black and white or two of it in Santa Rosa (but I don't have a flatbed scanner) and I know I have a shot of it at the Gathering of Eagles show. Unfortunately I don't think I ever got a chance to shoot the interior.

Boy that was a long time and several homes ago. I must be getting old...

I'll try to have a look soon...

_________________
Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

Thanks, I know how you feel, so no rush. I've got some old warbird pictures that I took that are over 30 years old stored in boxes and I'm not real motivated to find them.

Whenever you get a chance, even if it's next year.......

Actually laying my hands on the slides turned out to be easy -- they were actually where I thought they might be! Now that's a new one...

Here's a quick and dirty scan of a slide marked Aug 79 -- I think that must have been the GOE -- this certainly was a show at Chino. I have more, but no time right now -- I'll try to do some over the next couple of days. I actually have a fair bit of material from Chino shows and visits in the late 70s and 80s that should be digitalised anyway that I could post some time if there's any interest...

_________________
Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

Awesome! Thanks Neal, that picture was unexpected! Great shot! Yes, I would be interested in any of the Chino pictures you have, for sure!

How about something like this -- in more typical Chino weather?

_________________
Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

Ah, the O-47! That was before she caught on fire and was destroyed. The POF are restoring another O-47 that they got from a swamp. At the rate they're going on it though, it should be airworthy in about 10 to 15 years. I'm not complaining though, as they do first rate restorations!

Nice picture! Do you by chance have any pictures of their authentic Zero, 61-120, in the "mottled" or "striped" paint scheme before she was painted OD overall? I believe she was repainted around the time she first went to Japan on tour, about '79 or so.

Great shot of the B-29!!! I hope it can be added to the registry (hint). Wonder what the cutout is on the trailing edge of the nose gear door? Thats not typical of a B-29...

_________________
"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Good eye. Actually, there are cutouts on the nosegear doors of a "typical" B-29, but they're much smaller. They are to make clearance for the nose jack, when cycling the gear. I could be wrong, and probably am, but I suspect that the doors on FM may have been altered to accept either a different style of jack, or perhaps for some scales to weigh the aircraft with it's X-Plane loads that it used to carry. I also thought that FM's turrets were removed for it's X-Plane role (and added for the movie), so those cutouts may have also been for clearance for the actual load it was carrying at the time.

I agree that Neal's shot of FM is a great one. What a cool airplane it was. Unfortunately, it's wings are bad, bad, bad eaten up with corrosion. Now, with that being said, the current owner of FM does have a couple other B-29's that could be used to make enough parts to get FM back in the air. That would be soooo cool to see it flying again......on FIFI's wing, of course.

Gary

Great photo Neal. I wonder who the pilot was during FM's flying days in the late 1970s?

I have slides of that taken at LGB in July, 1978. I'll try to get some up later today.

_________________
Cheers,

Craig

Facebook Groups:

U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky HRS / CH-19 Helicopter Database
U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HO4S / HH-19 Helicopter Database

Ralph Johnson, owner; Art Stagg, pilot. Art helped get about 12 P-51Ds out of far east that where sold as kits back in '79-'80 for about 150K.

_________________
GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Press "1" for English.
Press "2" to disconnect until you have learned to speak English.

I remember when it was towed to the docks for its trip to Japan. I sat in the cockpit during the ride in case it broke lose and needed to be stopped. It was craned onto a car transport ship and a wooden box/hangar was erected around it.
In Japan they didn't like the paint job so it was repainted solid green over there.
Rich

To update the locator, the nose of the B-29 was back in Kermit's Museum during Sun n' Fun 2008.

Mark H

_________________
Fly safe or you get to meet me .......

If I remember right from my time at the old Weeks Air Museum in Miami in the early '90s the story was that Kermit had intended to fly Myrtle home, but shortly after take-off from Oakland one engine failed, then the cover over the upper rear turret blew open, creating a lot of drag, and they turned back.

The fuselage was stored for awhile in the building south of Tamiami Airport where my apartment was, and I used to go down at night sometimes, crawl through the tunnel, and sit in the pilot's seat pretending....

_________________
http://www.biplanerides1.com/