Tulare B-17 contact made

[JohnB]

Chris, that sounds like the best approach, just keep a polite dialogue open and share your progress with them. Maybe when they see all the work being done with the Grissom B-17 that will encourage them to take a more active role with Prestons Pride...

Exactly. No need to tick off anyone.

BTW, she looks to be in better shape than I really expected, and as far as being gutted, she's probably not much worse than some of the B-17s at USAF bases (only with less paint).

[wwrw2007]

Now hopefully nobody takes this the wrong way... I'm not saying who was right or wrong in the CAF case, I do feel it was the right thing to do with the Belle. Could their lack of desire to work with anyone be a result of what happened with the Belle and the P-82? Maybe they're afraid of losing their plane?

[GARY HILTON]

Wow! When I read the caption for this thread, I thought it meant another fruit truck had hit her! Glad that's not the case! Up to snuff??? What's snuff anyway? I thought it was something you put up your nose?...

[aerovin]

The Mighty Eighth AF Museum in Savannah traced the history of the B-17G that was transferred for restoration to their museum recently and found it had been illegally sold by the city that it had originally been dedicated to as a memorial in the late 1940s. It was supposed to revert back the the US Govt if the city didn't want it. It's convoluted history after that made it almost impossible to trace it's legal status, but of course it eventually passed back into the US Govt. collection.

The Mighty Eighth's airplane was provided as a war memorial by the U.S. govt. to a school district in North Dakota in 1947. In 1951, one Mr. Owen Williams showed up and "bought" the airplane from the district and the CAA reserved the registration of N66571 for it. Williams did not gain legal title to the airplane, though the registration of N66571 was set aside for it. Williams sold it quickly to a Canadian operator and the title question was evidently not an issue in Canada. It was then sold it back into the U.S. in 1971. Williams did the same trick with four other war memorial B-17s and probably other airplanes as well.

[whistlingdeath77]

Chris,
Our team has been down this road. I caution anyone to be respectful and consider your public responses before you hit the enter. This story sounds all to familiar. Best of luck in any event.

i think you and i car pooled down this road drew as i was disrepectful to you at one time and i'm sorry for that.