Warbird Information Exchange

I'm too lazy to dig back through this thread, but...

I recall reading about a DC-3 fuselage in Australia that was made into a motorhome.

I've seen pics of a Twin Beech fuselage made into a "bus" in the US.

A couple of years ago, a group of racers took a Cessna 310 fuselage and turned it into a race car for the "24 Hours of Lemons" race series, I believe using a Toyota minivan chassis. It was cool looking and was fairly successful in the race.

(Yeah, I know, these weren't warbirds, but all three types did see military service!)

_________________
Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

The C-46 house is still in Riverside CA. Saw it a few months ago.

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

_________________
Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

^^^ What he said! Or at least where to look on satellite view.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

33.968005,-117.409452

Riverside, CA. C-46 here

https://goo.gl/maps/B1LmpvzrNJv

Peek-a-boo.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Thanks for posting those. cool house. I used my biplane (homebuilt) project as Halloween decoration on my front lawn last year.we were known as the airplane house.

In 1952 Kenting were surveying in Newfoundland with Walrus bi-plane flying boat CF-GKA.
The Royal Navy serial was Z1781.
The engine destroyed itself and they figured there would be no parts for a Pegasus engine.
Sam Blandford turned it into a houseboat on Gander Lake.
Later they learned that Shearwater had plenty of brand new engines still in packing crates left over from servicing Royal Navy Swordfish and Walrus aircraft at this end of the convoy run in WW II.
No. I do not know where it ended up when Mr. Blandford bought his post war yacht.
Sam Blandford photo.

There's an outfit in Germany making tables and desks from Sabre/Fury and T-33 tails:
http://privatewing.eu/en/f-86-workbench.html
This appears to be from FJ-4B 143641, last based at NAS Glynco in Georgia.
I emailed the company to verify the BuNo but they said it had been sold. However they are working on more tables:

He sent photos of two tables in progress, one made from the fin and rudder of CL-13 Sabre RCAF 23308 and the other from the tail of a T-33/TV-2 with a BuNo ending in 857 - it was either 51-9062/131857 or 53-2751/136857.
I was just about to post the photos when the body of the message disappeared somehow... but I'll try to get more images from them.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

At Tocumwal, Wirraway frames were cut up and used as tree guards, you used to be able to see them on one of the main roads out of town. Also in town there is a house that has all manner of bits of canopy perspex set into the front porch floor like a mosaic. Nearby there was a Merlin engine with prop that was set on a stand and used to blow air across a fruit orchard to prevent mould setting in.

Elsewhere a house in inner Melbourne has Boomerang bay doors being used as a shed wall and the roof struts are Beaufighter and Mosquito undercarriage leg parts. There was another frame type that was used as a chook shed nearby but believed lost in a fire.

In NSW a dairy farmer was using Beaufighter wing panels as a wall in his dairy. They have now been saved (I pick them up next week !) A Beaufort cockpit section was being used in Northern NSW as a *ahem* hydroponic facility until rescued.

And of course in Balwyn, in Melbourne's inner East there was the fuse of a Beaufighter sitting in a backyard that was a young girls playground thing. That went to the US eventually.

Our Beaufighter at the Museum was used along with a Vampire, Canberra and Boomerang as playground equipment at the Lord Mayors Camp in Portsea.

Numerous B24 and similar wheels are still being used to this day on various farm equipment all over the place.

That's all I can think of right now

Cheers

_________________
Ewan McArthur
Moorabbin Air Museum
http://www.aarg.com.au
http://www.facebook.com/moorabbinairmuseum

Somehow the message came back and I got the photos:



Registry entry on this one:
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/jetregis ... 23308.html

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

I was looking through pictures the other day and I think I came across the predecessor to the C-46 house:

(Source: National Archives)

Based on the existence of a different example mentioned in another thread, it was apparently quite the trend.

_________________
Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

Another cargo plane residence: C-47 house trailer - 1946

_________________
Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

In England, on the A303 in, the road that passes Stonehenge in Wiltshire; a couple of miles to the East, at Amesbury's Solstice park, there is an ex RAF Gazelle fuselage upright with its tail upside down and fake wings to represent a dragonfly insect - it's visible from the road and is apparently one of a few fantasy statues dotted around the site.

The was also a Hunter painted silver in rhe middle of Woking town centre, ex Danish AF I think, it's gone now - something to do with a night club if if I recall...