KiwiZac wrote:
How is Reevers able to seriously explore the acquisition, transport and restoration of Lancaster KB882 if it requires donations of money to complete aircraft it currently has?
Kiwi Zac - fair question, but one that should have been researched a bit better. The B-25 Donation request. This is based upon the numerous requests we have received from overseas subscribers who have expressed a desire to get involved with the preservation of this aircraft. As you should know it has a very colourful post war history, BoB film ship to its end use in the USA as Chapter XI. Our request for donations is by no means an indication that Reevers is not capable of completing the restoration, in fact if you had read the latest postings on our FBP you would have seen that we are selling our A-26 (my favourite) in order to help subsidize the work on the B-25 and to allocate funds towards the Lancaster KB882 and our B-17 recovery efforts. Reevers has chosen to make all our projects available to as many people as possible and if they wish to donate we appreciate their kindness very much.
Lancaster KB882 - again, a good read of the latest information will confirm that our priority has always been to secure the aircraft and have it placed undercover, preferably in Canada. Reevers has stated that should this not be possible then an application to the courts in Canada will be made to have the aircraft transported to Australia. The costs for this will be covered by sales of other assets (as already stated) along with personal funds. Also, we made it clear in our media interview that we would ask for help from the warbird community to achieve our goals i.e. first is to save the aircraft from the elements and second would be to move it to Australia if nothing can be achieved in Canada. Reevers has also indicated that should the Lancaster come to Australia, it is likely to be loaned, donated or whatever can be agreed to a larger facility that is capable of doing the necessary work. We've nominate HARS and others have suggested Temora. Both would be excellent and both would be considered should we get to that stage.
B-17E Project - while Reevers has been researching and collecting many important and some very hard to get parts, this has been done using our own funds - funds raised by buying and selling aircraft related items primarily with some supplementation from business owners (a common practice for any business I would have thought) a wreck site is now being examined to determine the viability of recovering the remains to form the basis of a project - not a new build as all of what we have so far is genuine Boeing parts. We concede that many parts will come from many sources but as much original material will be used. What can not be secured will be new build, but this will be kept to a minimum.
Cattle are our first interest, but droughts, GFC and other contributing factors relating to my whistleblowing on corruption issues have all taken a toll. War birding is essentially an avenue of therapy for me because I can utilise all my skills I have developed over the last 25 years. But given the chance we will get back into cattle with a view to help offset the warbird costs. We still maintain an ongoing and active participation in reverse breeding via AI and contune to help out other breeders and monitor the results.
I hope this has answered your questions - if only partly, but we are reluctant to put all our details, business and private into an open public forum. We would be happy to dicuss specific questions via email with the appropriate caveats in place, We need to protect our interests. Finally reevers believes that Warbirding is not about ego's, its about Warbirds, so if reevers can not secure a project, we will act as a medium by which others can, hence the Warbird will have an increased chance of survival.
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