Warbird Information Exchange

O.K., thanks for the info. I still don't understand why bothering to go to all of that unless you plan on flying it more than once. Other than being able to claim it's the only "airworthy" or "last airworthy" authentic 262 or if it's just simply an ego trip, it does not make sense to make just one flight and then park it forever, in light of the modifications required for that. Either restore it staticly and keep it's originality and authenticity or fly it sparingly and with care for only special occasions. Restoring for one flight seems a little odd, especially since the aircraft does not need to be moved or ferried from a location. I do hope that they announce when that will be and not keep it a secret. If I have advance warning, I will go out there. So is Moses Lake an alternate storage or restoration area for Allen's collection? I've only heard it once in reference to any connection with Allen, and that was where I heard the B-17 was in storage, lying in pieces, at Moses Lake. So, if I understand you correctly, I assume the 262's final assembly will take place at Moses Lake? So, what exactly is the tie between Allen and Moses Lake?

Sorry for all the questions, but I appreciate the info, as intelligence on Allen's collection is extremely hard for us outside of Seattle to get!

Yes, I know, it's not my airplane, the owner can do whatever he wants, blah, blah, blah. I'm not complaining, mind you, only trying to understand the rationale for such a decision.

Absolutely no problem!! I'm a technical instructor so there are no dumb questions, This is going to go a bit off subject, but may help some begin to riddle Allens actions out. (yeah, good luck with that!)

Remember, P.A. has enough money that he can build wierd and very ugly buildings (like the EMP in Seattle, QWEST Field, the SEAHAWKS home, or the Heros Hanger @ MoF which is also very dark and gloomy) to salve his ego or whatever, this is a guy who has a 156 ft. yacht with an 18 car garage, a 56 seat uber theatre, and two helo pads on it. The bar stools in the lounge on the yacht are covered with whale foreskins (!!??!!) just because he has that much money! His corporation is named Vulcan because he's a huge STAR TREK geek.

The only thing that was an impedence to P.A. and little Billy G. were trying to get their two 4WD Porsche 959's out of customs impound several years ago, seems the cars had not been crash tested to prove the crashworthiness, Porsche only built around 200 (at somewhere North of $150K 1980 dollars each) and weren't about to smash one for the Feds. Little Billy and Microsquish offered to do a computer program to crash the cars, the NHTSA said 'crash a real one'. Several years later when the NHTSA started using computer simulations to approve car designs, Little Billy pointed this out to them and asked for their cars now please, the cars were eventually released to their owners.

Allen and Vulcans actions on lots of things defy logic, he owns large chunks of a neighborhood in Seattle and decided he really needed a streecar line to run about 1.75 miles into the CBD, even tho METRO Transit runs the same routes along identical streets, he bullyragged everyone and built the stupid thing which he refers to as the SLUS South Lake Union Streetcar, the neighbors call it the SLUT South Lake Union Trolly, Vulcan fails to see the humor in that-the thing looks like a huge blaze orange worm.

You'd really have to live here for a while to begin to understand Vulcan, I've lived here for most of my 6 plus decades and still don't understand everything they do-

_________________
Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

O.K. thanks for all of the info, Inspector. I guess it's true that a lot of billionaires are very eccentric!

I would love to see that first flight if and when it happens. As I recall, P.A. has had that 262 for a while now, close to a decade. At the rate that restoration is going, I could see it taking another 10 years to fly. Whenever it is close, I hope you all up there in Seattle will give us enough warning, so we can fly up there to watch the historic first (and presumably last) flight of a 262 since the war.

No more questions......for now!

WARBIRD 1,
Sorry, I completely missed answering part of your last question. Moses Lake (refered to locally as Moses Hole) is East of Seattle, over the Cascade Mountains along I-90 and alongside the Columbia River. It was originally Larson AFB and had fighters and B-36 wings based there, hence it's nearly 15000 ft runway. (now really really rough as it bakes in the Eastern Wash sun all summer and freezes during the winters)

It's used as a training base by JAL for it's 747 crew training, but that will end soon as JAL will do it's 787 training in Northern Japan. Boeing also uses Moses Lake as the field is pretty remote from the town and is surrounded by a great deal of very, very flat ground (GOOGLE EARTH Grant County Airport in Moses Lake and see what I mean) so Boeing takes scaled stuff there as it's about 2 1/2 hours by road or 35 min by aircraft from either KPAE or KBFI and few prying eyes except wheat farmers.

So if Vulcan flies the 262 there and something goes sideways, the chances of crashing into someones house as would happen in and around Everett/Lynnwood/Edmonds/Mukiliteo with all the houses and apartments here is reduced by a huge factor. The current plan is to truck everything to Moses Lake, assemble and fly, disassemble and truck back to KPAE.

Allens B-17E (NOT REPEAT NOT SWAMP GHOST) supposedly is still in one of the buildings he owns @ Arlington Airport about 10 miles North of KPAE along I-5. GOOGLE EARTH Arlington WA. airport and his buildings are green and located on the Southwest corner of the field, those hangers are packed full of 'one ofs' and other things that are very very rare and well hidden away and number in the hundreds, sort of Charles Emerson Kane's xanadu for airplane crazies. He's got stuff all over the world, and from all over the world.

One of the 'open to the public' projects is his original A6M ZERO two seat trainer that is being brought back to life @ FHC's display hanger @ KPAE, hopefully it will be ready to fly this coming Summer season of Flying Days, but at the rate Vulcan goes through mechanics and Directors of Maintenance, it looks more like a suicide squad, want a really high pressure, potentially reallyshort term job with way way to many bosses?

I still hope he will locate and restore to flying, an F-102A as they had a long tradition when KPAE was Paine AFB, it will also give the over monied Luddites who live in Mukilteo a real taste of the 'airplane noise' they continually whine about with absolutely no recourse, go ahead, sue Vulcan Inc.

Does that help?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Thanks, Inspector for the info!