Warbird Information Exchange

Could the rumour have started here?
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45346&hilit=big+news+collings

From previous posts on "Doc" I believe it is still owned by and was on loan by a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, Tony Mazzolini who could not guarantee the airplane would stay at the museum for more than two years after restoration. I think a lot of the drive to finish "Doc" left at that point when most of the volunteers realized they were kinda getting used by Mr Mazzolini. Sure hope Collings gets her, she'll get taken care of and a lot more people will be able to see her. Either way be cool to have two B-29s in the air regardless where they acquire it.

Doc is still owned partly by Mr. Mazzolini. For the most part the restoration work really slowed when the aircraft was moved into a hangar with limited access for the volunteers, and next to no access for visitors. The Collings Foundation has been approached several times over the past couple of years about purchasing at least a part of Doc with the intention of returning it to flight status. We have even sent someone to Wichita to take a look at the current state of the aircraft (about a year ago). At this time there are no immediate plans to acquire the aircraft. If we had a sponsor step forward to help with the acquisition and/or restoration the plans might change, but for now it is just a rumor (and not even a real current one).

As for the "big news" that is talked about in the other thread, there are at least 2 other aircraft projects that are in line behind the A-36 when it is complete at New Smyrna Beach. That information will be made public at some point in the future (probably once everything is finalized and the planes are sitting at New Smyrna Beach). They are both aircraft that people on WIX are probably familiar with.

Doc is in a National Guard Hangar on McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita. He was pulled outside for a photo shoot with the members of the 73rd Wing during their reuinon in Wichita a couple of years ago.

Don't think the Wichita Avaition Museum has any real connection to Doc. Now that Boeing is leaving Wichita there are 70 plus acres of buildings that will be available, so hangar space should not be a problem but VOLUNTEERS the magic name in any project may be had to find.

Doc needs to go to a good home with deep pockets, not many in the Wichita area that could support him. Some of the Wichita group would take one of the R3350's mounted on a trailer to some county fairs and run it up for the crowds, very impressive to see without the exhaust collectors shooting exhaust straight out. Lots of smoke and oil slinging.

Phillip

I would love to see another B-29 up in the air but it would be even more great if the collings foundation could have all 3 bombers on a tour

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" I am a nobody in aviation, but somebody to my family."

Do you have the right airplane? Is there any truth to the Collings Foundation lease-to- purchase funding to secure a Martin Mars for the ride program during the firefighting off season?

Doc guys said they had enough "stock" engines that were NOS in cans for their purposes and declined participation. I'd imagine if Collings gets Doc, they'll trade in the NOS engines to Anderson for the R3350-B29 hybrids since the bigger concern is reliability for their touring schedule and safety versus being historically accurate.[/quote]

If there were a dozen mile long freight trains loaded with free NOS R-3350's in cans it would only be a good start at wearing out all the volunteer & paid mechanics on the face of the earth you could muster. To try and pull an engine from the can and use it without a complete tear down and bearing replacement would be an exercise in futility. When those engines were new they were unreliable, 70 years later nothing has changed that fact.

Anderson's engines on the B-29 seem to be proving themselves quite nicely.

According to the late Gary Austin they took the best of their cores in to see about rebuilding them and they were junk. I will try to find the thread it was around 4-5 years ago.

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There are only two types of aircraft -- fighters and targets

If there were a dozen mile long freight trains loaded with free NOS R-3350's in cans it would only be a good start at wearing out all the volunteer & paid mechanics on the face of the earth you could muster. To try and pull an engine from the can and use it without a complete tear down and bearing replacement would be an exercise in futility. When those engines were new they were unreliable, 70 years later nothing has changed that fact.

Anderson's engines on the B-29 seem to be proving themselves quite nicely.[/quote]

I agree totally. When we flew with the old engines, on takeoff, it was very intense waiting for one of the old engines to quit/explode/turn in to scrap metal/etc. It wasn't "if" but "when". The new hybrids have been trouble free for two years now.

Here's what Gary had to say several years ago

They are -57AM's......just like the ones FIFI has. They definitely DO have a buttload of cores...all are pretty much boat anchors from what I was told by a "member of their management" and Precision Engines. I personally saw the two engines at Precision that they sent for teardown & inspection. They were supposedly the "best two we could find out of our pile," and they were junk (but to make up for it, Precision charged them out the whazoo for the teardown...yikes!).

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There are only two types of aircraft -- fighters and targets

BTW, Precision is the company Air Tahoma dumped after 3 R2800 rebuilds came back and failed their initial power runs after installation and Precision refused to fix them under warranty.

Great way to warp the valves.