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Dan,
I push for the antennae mast every chance I get but in reality, it's not going to happen. It's base is made to attach to a piece of structure that, if installed, would pose a very nasty head knocker and back gouger for the person climbing into the jump seat. It's pretty tight and thorny back there as it is and adding more poking/ripping obstacles is probably not a good idea. I've asked Mark to think about a way we can make it work but so far nothing reasonable has come up.
As far as the prop blades go, economics answered that question for us. When we were searching for a replacement prop, new built paddles from the Czech Republic were about $12.5k each. Good used paddles were about $6K to $8k each. Original cuffed blades were in the $15k each neighborhood if somebody can be found willing to give a set up. Albatross blades were in the $3k to $4k each range. They have rounded tips, are not cuffed but can be. When cuffed they look nearly identical to the original cuffed blades. The prop we bought has the Albatross blades in it, again, as a matter of economics. Because the cost of cuffing is around $3k per blade, we've made the decision to put that $12k to a more practical use than simple aesthetics. In the future if money becomes available, it could happen.
The bottom line is, the general public needs to understand that the CAF, much as it would love to be, is not in a position to restore its airplanes like many private owners with considerable wealth can. A painful reality. Those award winning airplanes that have everything in them and are finished so perfectly have set the bar so high that it's become unaffordable and often unpractical for others to meet. Unfortunately there are people in some circles that don't realize this or don't understand this. To them the top shelf, award winning restorations have become the normal expectation for all to meet. In reality, it's not realistic for the CAF, or other less affluent private owners to meet that bar if the desire is there to fly the aircraft in a reasonable amount of time. It is likewise not a reasonable goal if the plan is to fly the airplane 100 to 150 hours per year. And the final piece of the puzzle is, with a perfectly restored aircraft all decked out in its original regalia, most often there can be no jump seat to offer riders a peak inside what it was like to fly one of these machines 65 years ago. For the Red Tail Project, that's a large part of its mission.
During the rebuild we have added many additional pieces of original equipment not found in the airplane prior to this rebuild. Again cost, maintenance and ease of operation were all primary factors when deciding what we should and should not do realistically. With the exception of a few minor changes, the paint scheme will remain nearly identical to the that which it wore before the crash since it was designed to represent all of the Tuskegee groups. Some like it, some don't. The answer is, this project isn't about one person, it's about a group of people. It's hoped that the general public will embrace the airplane not as a technically correct masterpiece or the perfect recreation of a notable individuals aircraft, but as a nicely restored working Mustang that tells an inspiring story of a group of people that gave an awful lot to America and asked for nothing more than common respect in return for their efforts and sacrifice.
John
Last edited by John Beyl on Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Best wishes for the continued rebuild progress into the new year and I loved the DVD,cheers,Pete 
