Soplata F-82 Twin Mustang to Tom Reilly

[MattP38]

Very neat to know about.

[RareBear]

When I stopped by Tom's place in Douglas last October, they were just beginning to disassemble the fuselage and inventory what they had.

Walt

[RMAllnutt]

Has work started yet on the Reilly F-82 yet? If not, when is it projected to start? Anyone know?

They are well under way, judging by the photos I saw in a recent Challenge Publications mag. One fuselage looked ready for re-skinning, and a lot of other parts looked like they were being worked on.

Cheers,
Richard

[warbird1]

Has work started yet on the Reilly F-82 yet? If not, when is it projected to start? Anyone know?

They are well under way, judging by the photos I saw in a recent Challenge Publications mag. One fuselage looked ready for re-skinning, and a lot of other parts looked like they were being worked on.

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks for the info! I don't get any more Challenge publications since I've long since lost respect for them.

[RMAllnutt]

Has work started yet on the Reilly F-82 yet? If not, when is it projected to start? Anyone know?

They are well under way, judging by the photos I saw in a recent Challenge Publications mag. One fuselage looked ready for re-skinning, and a lot of other parts looked like they were being worked on.

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks for the info! I don't get any more Challenge publications since I've long since lost respect for them.

Your are welcome... oh, and I didn't say I bought the mag old chap.. Challenge are not on my list of acceptable publications either!

Cheers,
Richard

[Aircraft Mech Paul]

Hi Guys,

Umm... Not to rain on anyone's parade here. But a few years back I was corresponding with a gentleman by the name of Dick Odgers (?) who has recovered a majority of a P-82 from a scrap yard, which in and of itself isn't all that remarkable, but the fact that he found it in what turned out to be a "Super-Fund" cleanup site is. He is up in Alaska, and I have since lost his correspondence. But he did tell me that he found this P-82 while looking for parts for his P-40 project. He came upon a P-51 fuselage that didn't look quite right, having only one side of the horizontal stab attach point. But what he did tell me is that it was his intent to make it flyable. So, there is potential for yet another P-82 out there.

FYI....make your own conclusions here.

Paul

I think I heard that Tom Reilly may have acquired those Alaskan F-82 parts.
Jerry

You're right Jerry. I talked to Tom last year, and he said he'd bought Dick Odgers P-82 parts, so that the twin mustang they are building will be very original indeed, and not just the Soplata fuselage. Tom said that, sadly, Dick Odgers died last year of pancreatic cancer.

Richard

Oh Man !!

I didn't know about Dick's passing or cancer. All I knew of him was that he was a real gentleman whenever we exchanged e-mails and took the time to unfold the story of how he came to have the P-82.

God Speed Dick.....

I hope that Mr. Rielly does an extremely good job on this, as an honor to to Dick.

As for Mr. Rielly and my feelings towards him...plz pm me and I'll explain further.

Paul

[Rod Schneider]

I just got back from a trip down to Douglas, GA and saw the P-82 that Tom Reilly is working on. One fuselage looks nearly ready for skinning and the elevator was being worked on in the shop. Tom says he has most of the parts needed for the second fuselage already in hand. The parts I saw look very nice indeed! According to a friend of mine who's been machining some of the parts, MT is indeed building the props for this bird. It's going to be a very nice airplane!

[Dan K]

I just got back from a trip down to Douglas, GA and saw the P-82 that Tom Reilly is working on. One fuselage looks nearly ready for skinning and the elevator was being worked on in the shop. Tom says he has most of the parts needed for the second fuselage already in hand. The parts I saw look very nice indeed! According to a friend of mine who's been machining some of the parts, MT is indeed building the props for this bird. It's going to be a very nice airplane!

And you've posted all 500 pics exactly where, Rod?

[Iclo]

I'm impressed by the number of projects done by Mr Reilly. If I remember correclty, currently he's also involved with the restoration of Don Brooks 2nd B-17 and gives an hand on the Champaign B-17 restoration.

[Rod Schneider]

Well, I don't have much in the way of pictures--most of the hangar was very dark. But I do have a couple of the left fuselage in the jig, so here they are:

[Rod Schneider]

Well, those ended up a bit bigger than I planned-my apologies to those with narrower monitors

To me, it kinda looks like a big RV-6 kit. There is a lot of work ahead on this.

[maxair2air]

Folks, I'll be posting a new essay on the progress of the P-82, hopefully on Monday, on MaxAir2Air.com. They are having new props made for the plane, by the way.

[Jack Cook]

Challenge

[John Dupre]

If i recall right the p-82 had allisons.

Not all of them. Some variants had Merlins (the early pre-production aircraft), later ones Allisons.

Pretty close. Here's Dan K's P/F-82 Tutorial 101:

XP-82 (2 built): Merlins
XP-82A (1 built): Allisons
P-82B/C/D: Merlins
P-82E/F/G/H: Allisons

Is it true that the switch from Merlins to Allisons came about because the USAAF was reluctant to pay royalties to Rolls Royce post war? Sounds a pretty lame argument but why was the switch made?

[corsair166b]

A number of years ago, at the downtown Ft. Collins airport here in Colorado, sitting off the end of the runway was the wreck of the old Morrison Knudsen LB-30 AL 557 which I have posted pics of here before....while poking around in it we came across some sections of aircraft that we could'nt quite identify...a mid wing section and a cockpit section and the bottom of another cockpit section...only later did we figure out that they were parts off of a P-82.....they might have been some of the Alaskan parts Mr. Odgers found, as the LB-30 came to town as a wreck from Alaska...dunno where they wound up, the wreck of the LB-30 is now (or was last I saw) alongside Darryl Skurich's place at the former airport so I assume he has the P-82 parts too, possibly in storage for the Whittington brothers.

Mark