A sad non-restoration story.

[CAPFlyer]

The other problem with a lot of these older amphibs is that the FAA requires you do a full inspection on the airplane every time it touches salt water (to include the Albatross).

The situation and how it went sucks and there is definitely plenty of blame to go around in its handling, but it's unfortunately not unique and probably won't be the last time either.

I don't know the FAA definition for a saltwater landing "full inspection". A Goat maybe a little different. When I was doing HH-52's and saltwater landings, the inspection wasn't too bad. Freshwater rinse/wash of the engine and A/F, Interior and exterior, pull the hull drain plugs, "purge the wicks" in the L/G struts, unroll and wash the float bags on the sponsons, visual inspection of the hull. It wasn't too bad and a couple of guys can do it over lunch and have the aircraft ready to go for the afternoon flight.

From what I was told, it seems the FAA inspection requires opening up part of the wing to inspect the spar and an interior inspection of the hull in addition to the exterior. I wasn't given a timeframe, but it sounded to me like it would take at least a couple of hours, especially for a volunteer crew who doesn't do it all the time, and that's time that a lot of non-profit operators are just going to do without.

[maxum96]

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this, but here goes.


I'm sorry to see the Albatross get scrapped. I think they're neat aircraft and from the photos of the interior, the one in question looked very intact inside. But let's remember a few things. As much as we (vintage aircraft fans) want to see all aircraft like this saved, it's just not feasible. We know they deteriorate from sitting outside. It cost money and time to save them. There's upkeep on anything , including static aircraft. And there there are far more aircraft than dollars out there to save them. Many times historical ships, trains and aircraft are offered for free to anyone that will move and preserve them. And most of the time there are no takers. Lockheed's Sea Shadow stealth ship was just scrapped after an offer like that was made and there were no takers.

It sounds like the group responsible for scrapping her might have been hasty. From that many years outside near saltwater I'm guessing she had some serious corrosion issues. Perhaps that's why no one stepped forward to save her? But in my profession I've had to deal with the news media often on notable news events. Often they get the details wrong and/or just don't care about the truth. Perhaps that was the case here and there's more to the story. I don't know.

Once again, I'm sorry to see such a neat airplane scrapped. But let's not rush to judgement until we know the entire story.


Just my dos centavos

[M.P.]

And in Germany one of only a few F-104F will be scrapped:
http://www.i-f-s.nl/news/f-104f-2916-will-be-scrapped/

[XL446]

These guys had (according to some news reports in the second part of 2012) originally laid hands on the Albatross that used to be displayed/preserved in Gorizia (close to the Slovenian border). I seem to remember a news report saying they had already started to dismantle it. So reading the OP's article I was assuming that would also be a goner. Fortunately this month's Scramble says that the [ex-]Gorizia example has been earmarked for preservation at Grosseto.

As to the organisation responsible for this destruction: if they have taken all their names and contact details off their website, perhaps we should help history by creating a permalink to a webarchive. As I recently read on a teenager's T-shirt: pain is temporary, pride is forever.

[Flying Pencil]

Call the Mafia, time for a contract...