Mr. Beck's A
Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:01 am
Was wondering what the plans were for the wreckage of this amazing homebuilt Mustang. Is it in storage? Do they plan on restoring it in honor of Mr. Beck maybe?
Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:22 am
I wanna knownabout the other half a dozen or so that were built up in pieces ? What's the plan for them ?
Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:49 am
To my knowledge his wife took over the business, and Bob Odegard helps out with the wings. Right now they've got a wings and fuselage assembly line.
Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:35 am
I have been wondering about the disposition of his whole collection....what happens to that gorgeous F4U-4 Corsair that he brought to Connecticut in 2005? Hopefully she or Odegaard will keep it and fly it....anyone know more?
Mark
Mark
Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:54 am
As of 11:00 am July 8th:
…There are no plans to rebuild Gerry’s A model. Some thought has been given to repairing the wing for use on another build since it was not badly damaged in the crash. At some point the fuselage may be parted out since it contains a lot of serviceable components but it’s highly unlikely the structure itself will ever be reincarnated. That said nothing is ever set in concrete.
As far as the component’s that were made to produce the 9 other A models, one fuselage is in the jig now being put together. There are still quite a few more parts that need to be created to make a complete fuselage and they will be made as that fuselage moves forward. As these subassemblies are produced, they may be sold as turn-key airplanes or “kits” with the major subassemblies completed. No decision has been made on that yet. There are plusses and minuses to each approach that need to be considered.
Bob Odegaard sold the wing business several years ago to one of his employees. Brent has really stepped up to the plate and rebuilt a lot of the existing jigs and constructed additional new jigs. The A, B/C wings are essentially the same and while Brent has not produced any A model wings yet (The wing under Gerry’s A was a modified D wing), our C model wing has been. When our wing was rebuilt, some but not all of the rib tooling for the A, B/C wing was created.
Suffice it to say there are no “Assembly lines”, as we understand the meaning of the word, for either the wing or fuselage.
Aside from Becks T-6 project that is for sale, the last I heard Cindy has no plans of selling any of the airplanes that she and Gerry collected and restored over the years.
John
…There are no plans to rebuild Gerry’s A model. Some thought has been given to repairing the wing for use on another build since it was not badly damaged in the crash. At some point the fuselage may be parted out since it contains a lot of serviceable components but it’s highly unlikely the structure itself will ever be reincarnated. That said nothing is ever set in concrete.
As far as the component’s that were made to produce the 9 other A models, one fuselage is in the jig now being put together. There are still quite a few more parts that need to be created to make a complete fuselage and they will be made as that fuselage moves forward. As these subassemblies are produced, they may be sold as turn-key airplanes or “kits” with the major subassemblies completed. No decision has been made on that yet. There are plusses and minuses to each approach that need to be considered.
Bob Odegaard sold the wing business several years ago to one of his employees. Brent has really stepped up to the plate and rebuilt a lot of the existing jigs and constructed additional new jigs. The A, B/C wings are essentially the same and while Brent has not produced any A model wings yet (The wing under Gerry’s A was a modified D wing), our C model wing has been. When our wing was rebuilt, some but not all of the rib tooling for the A, B/C wing was created.
Suffice it to say there are no “Assembly lines”, as we understand the meaning of the word, for either the wing or fuselage.
Aside from Becks T-6 project that is for sale, the last I heard Cindy has no plans of selling any of the airplanes that she and Gerry collected and restored over the years.
John
Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:52 am
Thanks for the info! Greatly appreciated! 
Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:16 am
The Zero (which I think Gerry owned in Partnership with a couple of other people) is still for sale and on display at the Fargo Air Museum.
http://www.fargoairmuseum.org/aircraft.php
http://www.fargoairmuseum.org/aircraft.php