Robert "Bob" Diemert has passed away

[Noha307]

For those of you that haven't seen it, the National Film Board of Canada documentary, The Defender is worth seeing....

The Commemorative Air Force covered the other side of the Zero restoration in one of their history videos:

[Zac Yates]

His methods were unorthodox but if not for Bob several airframes would have been lost to history. I'm not saying he should be held up as a paragon of the industry, but he has earned a place somewhere in the historical record.

[Lon Moer]

Diemert's 4 seat P-51 ( with C-133 canopy) and his 7 seat Fairey Firefly ( and his B-25).
Created using a central lengthwise bench seat and automotive lap-belt seat-belts.

[Sopwith]

Anyone know what happened to the Mustang and Firefly, are they still extant?

[Dan K]

Anyone know what happened to the Mustang and Firefly, are they still extant?

A quick, morning-coffee internet search for Firefly WD840 found it on Platinum Fighters "Sold" list between 2009-2014.

FAA database still has it listed...sold & deregistered by 2015. Tossing the given address into Google Maps pulls up an auto dealership in Monaco.

Does this ring a bell for anyone? Off to work.

[k5083]

Always liked that Firefly. It is a Lancaster/York QEC on a Mk.VI. It is on my list for a modeling conversion. Probably will take me longer to build in 1/72 in plastic than it took Bob to build the real plane.

August

[Thomas_Mac]

Anyone know what happened to the Mustang and Firefly, are they still extant?

I found this AvCanada thread which was tracking down identities of all Bob's aircraft if interested.

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=114027

[Sopwith]

Thanks Dan and Thomas, much appreciated.

[Steve Nelson]

I thought his Zero was at the Marine Corps museum at VA. If not his, who's?

That was his other Zero restoration. It's now hanging in the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. It's definitely got some odd non-Zero features, but from a distance it looks the part. Sadly, the museum gave it a horribly inaccurate paint job a few years ago. Here's a photo I took of it in 2019. Sorry about the image size..I couldn't figure out how to resize it in Imgur.

SN

[mike furline]

Anyone know what happened to the Mustang and Firefly, are they still extant?

https://pacificwrecks.com/people/restor ... index.html


Firefly http://www.warbirdregistry.org/fireflyr ... wd840.html
Hurricane http://www.warbirdregistry.org/hurrireg ... f5377.html
P-40 http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p40regis ... ak940.html
B-25 http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25regis ... 30456.html
P-38 http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p38regis ... 26761.html
P-51 https://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/s ... al/A68-175 , http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51regis ... 74950.html

[Zac Yates]

Always liked that Firefly. It is a Lancaster/York QEC on a Mk.VI. It is on my list for a modeling conversion. Probably will take me longer to build in 1/72 in plastic than it took Bob to build the real plane.

August

Me too! Maybe you could send me a QEC and prop?

For whatever reason Diemert fascinates me and building models of his aircraft is something I enjoy. I've already done the Zero and Val:
Airfix 1/72 Bob Diemert - CAF Zero by Zac Yates, on Flickr
val-cf-tzt-by-me-as-a-fujimi-172-model-and-by-bob-diemert-in-11_49279730533_o by Zac Yates, on Flickr

[Thomas_Mac]

Nice work Zac, I am sure Bob would have loved to see those!

[k5083]

Yes, nice work indeed!

I might have an extra Lanc QEC for you. I have an old Airfix Lanc kit (the 1980s tooling) and of the four engines, one is reserved for the Firefly, two are earmarked to convert an He 111 into a CASA, and one is unassigned.

August

[Noha307]

C-133 canopy

What? You're talking about a Douglas C-133 Cargomaster, correct? C-133s didn't have a bubble canopy. I'm very confused.

[kalamazookid]

C-133 canopy

What? You're talking about a Douglas C-133 Cargomaster, correct? C-133s didn't have a bubble canopy. I'm very confused.

Guessing that's supposed to be CT-133 canopy.