Any updates on Collings P-38 and B-17 Oregon

[thoots]

Latest news from Evergreen Aviation Museum:

All five planes previously discussed are still at the museum. A docent filled me in with quite a bit of information: The workers have found several leaks in the P-38 mechanicals, which have been repaired, and some time in the past few days the plane was taken out to have its engines run, and they really turned up the RPM.

Everything looks like the P-38 will fly out some time next week, but there is certainly no time or schedule for that. The engine covers and such were still off the plane, though the wheels were back on. Two men were actively working on it when I visited the museum this afternoon.

Supposedly the plane will be taken across the highway and then flown out of McMinnville Airport, then it'll make a short hop over to Aurora State Airport, something like 20 miles or so away to the east, where a hangar is waiting in which more extensive work will be performed, before it presumably heads to Florida.

And presumably next up for the Evergreen Museum will be work on the B-17 to get it ready to go through the same routine. I guess it took roughly a month to get the P-38 ready to go, so you would expect the B-17 to take quite a bit longer than that. So, two months? Three? We'll see what happens.

[florida.warbirds]

Gary and the staff at American Aero will be "refurbing" the P-38 over the winter or longer.

[Ed Likes]

Thanks THOOTS for the latest update on what is going on with the P-38 at this time. I was kind of wondering how things were progressing on the various aircraft. I do certainly understand that things have to be right before the P-38 takes to the air. The airplane has not flows for around 25 years or so. As a proud sponsor of Collings am really glad they are getting this P-38 as it has been on their bucket list for sometime. Keep the updates coming when you know of something news worthy happening and thanks again to everyone who has posted. Keepem Flyin

[thoots]

I visited the museum this morning, and big progress has been made with the P-38. All of the body panels have been put back in place, and it appeared that they were installing the final covers, for the radiators mid-way in the booms. And by gosh, I suppose once that's done, they could pull the plane across the highway, and fly it away this afternoon!

I sure don't know if that's the schedule or not -- I'm not sure if any of the docents and staff know anything more than I do -- but as one of them mentioned last week, the plan is to fly it out some time this week, and it's hard to believe that it wouldn't be ready to go by the end of the day today.

I'll have to get busy and get some pictures posted -- I'm sure this will be a lot more useful with pictures!

[thoots]

OK, let's see if I can post a few pictures here. Here's one of the first "very disassembled" views:



Working on it:



Over the wing of a DC-3:



From today -- almost ready to fly:



There are more pictures in my SmugMug gallery, here:

https://thoots.smugmug.com/Evergreen-Museum-Warbirds/

And many more pictures from Evergreen Aviation Museum in my main gallery, here:

https://thoots.smugmug.com/Evergreen-Aviation-Museum/

My pictures have no watermarks and are fully available for downloading. By all means, download and enjoy!

[phil65]

Nice..............

[43-2195]

Beautiful. Thank you, very much appreciated.

[DH82EH]

Thanks for the pics!

Andy

[markboss]

Thanks ..Great pics!!
Now if we could only have the Spruce Goose flying!

[Zac Yates]

Now if we could only have the Spruce Goose flying!

Any chance we can convince Elon Musk or Paul Allen that it would be an asset for their respective space programmes?

[p51]

Now if we could only have the Spruce Goose flying!

Most folks here already know the Goose was kept in flight status by Howard Hughes until 1976. I always wonder if Howard ever woke up one morning and said, "Hey, why don't I try to beat the distance I flew in '47 with H4 today?" Imagine the furor if the doors to his not-really-secret hangar opened and the Hercules taxied out for the bay?
You have to wonder if there were days when he thought of doing just that. He had to have that thought a few times before he went stone cold insane...

[phil65]

" He had to have that thought a few times before he went stone cold insane..."

Maybe after.....

[Warbird Kid]

Little off topic but, don't know how many of you delve into the Hughes conspiracies, but this is pretty interesting.
Did he live another 25 years as Nik Nicely?


Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTtD3Edtyzo

[JohnB]

I hate to get all PC here, but I don't think Hughes was ever clinically or legally "insane".

Just trying to keep the record straight for the young guys here that only know him from the movie....
He was a brilliant engineer and fine pilot in his day, just trying to preserve his reputation for the record.

[Thomas_Mac]

Little off topic but, don't know how many of you delve into the Hughes conspiracies, but this is pretty interesting.
Did he live another 25 years as Nik Nicely?
Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTtD3Edtyzo

Thanks for the link, that is a new one to me. Looking forward to checking that out tonight

Last edited by Thomas_Mac on Thu May 25, 2017 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.