Warbird Information Exchange

Here is the Winnie Mae.

Thanks for the compliments on the pics. I was basically pointing, shooting and crossing my fingers, hehe.

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To be fair, a lot of emphasis and effort has gone into U-H and getting stored aircraft out there.

As it is, there have been a good number of gallery revisions over the last several 5-10 years. How Things Fly and The Wright Experience (which is a temporary exhibit scheduled to close a couple years ago and was extended due to popular demand) for instance. I'm not a big civil aviation buff, but the reworking of the civil gallery into "America by Air" was pretty substantial. They're now working on revising the Hall of Pioneers gallery, and I would imagine that with Flak Bait scheduled for early restoration at U-H Phase II the WWII Gallery will get a facelift soon as well. The West-side upper gallery has the new UAV exhibit, and the bookstore/museum shop is a vast improvement over the way it was only 10 years or so ago.

The old Helicopter gallery, which was later cleared out for the initial Enola Gay exhibit, now houses the flight simulators. I don't really like them using a whole gallery for those, but they make money and help pay the bills. The South East Gallery was used until recently to display some of the more popular artifacts from the American History Museum while it was being renovated.

I figure that once U-H gets stabilized with Phase II, there'll be revisions to the older galleries. My understanding is that they want to rotate some of the aircraft between the two facilities to keep things fresh, especially since the Mall museum gets 3-4x as many visitors as U-H does. But as it is, I'm not sure how much of the others is really needed. The WWI, Looking at Earth and Golden Age galleries seem fine to me, for instance.

Great picture of the Winnie Mae. A forgotten plane by many people. I wish it was displayed in a place of honor (I'm not wild about it just sitting next to the Concord) with all of it's associated equipment i.e. Post's pressure suit. I really felt that it should have remained in the downtown museum. Time to write a letter...

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

They had a very nice picture of the pressure suit with the plane.

I kind of like it's current display location at U-H, it has plenty of space around it, not crowded by other aircraft, you can get a nice view of it. Alot of the planes at U-H reminded me of pieces of art displayed in a gallery (in a good way).

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Ok, I feel better now... Any pictures of the pressure suit?

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

No, I mean they had an actual picture of the pressure suit in front of the plane. I did not see the pressure suit on display.

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Did anyone notice what is there in little bitty letters below "Winnie Mae"? (of Oklahoma) There was some discussion of the possibility that it might be loaned to a museum here in OK, where Wiley Post lived most of his life and based most of his flying from. He and Will Rogers were great pals, and Will took several flights with Wiley in the Winnie Mae. The talk of a loan back to (what I think) is the aircraft's homebase petered out, and it went to U-H. Would love to have it here in OK, with Art Goebel's "WOOLAROC."

Just my 2 cents, from a biased Oklahoman.

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

i remember in the mid 70's on a junior high school over night trip to the ford museum in dearborn taking 2 pics of winnie mae, damned near perfect fit to the rivet as my kodak pocket instamatic (kiddies ask daddy) couldn't fit her in in 1 shot. when i got the film developed & pieced the 2 shots it was damned near perfect. i was flabbergasted!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

[quote="TAdan
Thanks, I looked it up and it turns out that the P-26 at the NMUSAF is actually a replica, I thought it was real. I knew POF's example was real, and there are only two real ones left.

I do have a picture or two of the Winnie May, I'll post it this evening.[/quote]

While a copy I believe that the NMUSAF P-26 is very close to original since it was built using Boeing supplied blueprints and lots of NMUSAF supplied original equipment.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

Glad to see so many here know and appreciate the history of the Winnie Mae.


I, of course, think it should came back to Oklahoma.

Unrelated question:


Wiley Post has three airports named after him.... one in Oklahoma City, one in Barrow, Alaska and one in Renton, Washington.


How many other persons have multiple airports named in their honor?


Anyone know?

Kevin,

I've been told by locals that the Winnie Mae was originally going to be preserved either at Woolaroc or at Frank Phillips Field in Bartlesville but the deal never came about. However, the Smithsonian appears to have worked out a deal to purchase the airplane after Post retired her but before his accident. There is (or was when we were based out of there) a large photo of the airplane and a plaque at the Terminal building that states that the Winnie Mae made her last flight at BVO in 1935.. I forget the exact date on the plaque. Lots of aviation research and history was supported by Phillips over the years.

Scott

Hey Scott,

It doesn't surprise me that there was originally talk that the Winnie Mae would go to WOOLAROC. In retrospect, it almost surprises me that Frank Phillips, who was alive at the time of Post's death and the sale by his widow to the Smithsonian, didn't purchase it himself. He was really in "buying" mode in the 1930's putting together the museum at WOOLAROC, so it makes me wonder what happened with that deal. And yes, the Phillips archive has tons and tons of material on Post as Phillips was supporting most of Post's high-altitude research flights.

The story I've heard is more recent and involves the new museum in OKC, which has a replica hanging from the ceiling of their rotunda. The story is that the Smithsonian would have let them have the Winnie Mae on loan if they were willing to leave it on the ground and not hang it, but they wanted the airplane to hang so that they could use the floor space for event/facility rental. So they purchased a $200,000+ replica instead of borrowing the real deal for free. Just goes to economic realities and priorities, I guess. Being the person not having to make the $$$ work for that museum, I'd have wished they would have borrowed the real deal. But I am glad that the Smithsonian has it well preserved and on display.

All that said, maybe someday it can come back this direction...



kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

I do remember that OKC deal now that you mention it, Kevin.

Great photos, TAdan!
Scott

That is the story I've heard as well.


Here are some photos of the replica in OKC:

The Oklahoma state capital in the background:












Here is a shot of a table in the Winnie Mae Cafe: