Warbird Information Exchange

Who owns the LB-30 and what are their future plans for it?

I visited the Australian B-24 project today and their storage facility, they have many B-24 spares, tail, wing and fuselage sections that would appear to be able to fill in many of the gaps of this LB-30, and a workshop/restoration crew already skilled in the type.

Have the owners considered contracting the fuselage etc to a group like this to reconstruct it, using their skills, spare parts, jigs etc?

It seems a shame to have it rotting away like it is -surely there is a plan to do something with it?

regards

Mark Pilkington

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20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

To follow Mark's lead...

Why not talk to the folks in Australia, get their collection, plus Kaleeta's parts, plus this LB-30 to make 2 fliers? Again, I have a hunch that everyone's answer is going to be "with enough money, sure, it's possible!"

kevin

If the third digit is an 8, then just maybe those are the outer wings of this Bolivian B-17 (again, from Baugher):



Paging aerovin!! There's been some confusion over this plane's ID - you said it may be actually 42-5332 - maybe it can be verified now?

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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)

Those do look like B-17 outer wing panels, but I'm going to compare some other photos for the access panels, etc. It would appear that the furthest is a right panel and the nearest a left. Whittington did recover the B-17E from Bolivia and I heard he got some other parts too, so it is quite possible those are from CP-588. I'm not sure if any internal parts tags would help verify the identity as many time those tags are parts numbers with no relation to the aircraft's msn. It certainly bears further investigation.

Mark,

could you point the way towards a website or photo's of the Autralian B-24 ? I'm curious, and I must confess naive to the idea that any surviving -24's were outside the US with the exception of India.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

The owners(s) of the LB-30 here in CO are the Whittington brothers of Florida....and as far as I know, several people have tried to purchase it from them with no success....they are both hard to reach (from what I've been told) and reluctant to part with it....but I know no more than that.

Would be nice to see something done with the LIb besides watch it rot away beside a hangar.

M

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Mark Morris

A thought of making the LB-30 again take to the air...........would be be possible to make it a B-24 with a bomb bay???

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

Paul, Here's a website for the bunch in Australia.

http://www.b24australia.com/

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

There's two in England plus one in Canada.

OK, I have a question. A year + ago there was talk of a B-24 recovery in Canada that got stuck on the dock (I guess the recover was a while ago). Is there truth to that story and if so anyone know anything? If its a "tall Tale"?

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

Tim - Tom Reilly recovered a crashed B-24, Canadian AF #586, but was stopped from transporting it out of Labrador, I believe. This was probably about 15 years ago. I never understood why they would not let him export it, as he seemed to have done all the necessary and proper steps. There was an article, and pictures, in US AVIATOR, January 1992 issue. I hope someone can tell us what ever became of the Lib, and maybe why it was stopped at the docks.

This one particular wreck might be crucial in strengthening the very few flyable Libs out there.