status of some known airframes?

I apologize in advance if I missed updates, but haven't heard anything recently re:
LB-30 and P-82s at Fort Collins
P-40 on top of PNG P-47 dump
B-29 in shallow Alaskan lake
P-61s via Australia
Reilly B-24 from Canada

Thanks,
George

[Ollie]

Where's that B-24 at?

[Steve T]

Has YAF looked into the B-24? Would be awfully nice finally to see a Lib at Willow Run where so many of them were built...

S.

[Rob Mears]

I still hate that the YAF didn't move on one of those war vet B-24's that were offered to them back in the 1980's.

Not sure if George Singleton visits WIX, but he could help me remember the name of the island where they were located. Dozens of war weary aircraft including P-40, B-24, A-20, B-26, Corsairs...all sitting just as they were at war's end - and all scrapped in the late 1980s. Horrible shame!

[Steve T]

Rob--

Geez, yeah: the kind of thing that makes one want to punch someone! You could be talking about Biak? Back on the old WIX there was a long thread with pix from there showing Libs, A-20s, P-38s, you name it, taken in the 60s before the dump was, er, cleaned up...Or maybe Nadzab, which iirc is where "American Beauty" and maybe the original "Dragon And His Tail" met the axe (but that would have been circa 1949, not in the 80s!).

S.

[Michel Lemieux]

?????? a B24 up here............

Rob, give me also a buzz.

I will try to help if I can.

Where was this one fished up ?

The original "Dragon and His Tail" was most definately scrapped at Kingman. In fact she was the very LAST airplane to go through the smelters. The workers loved her paint so much they "saved" her til the end.

Ryan

Hi Rob (Mears) - Morotai, and until someone actually goes out there and verifies they are all gone, I'll have a hard time believing the place is completely clean. We all know of the dumps there, and what they must hold.

Take care,

George

[Rob Mears]

I remember now. It was Moratai Island. The island was turned into a national prison facility following WWII which explains why there had been no tampering with the derelict airframes on the adjacent property during that time. The government (Indonesia I believe) apparently allowed Tom Voll the opportunity to broker the sale of the machines, but I suppose their value (historical or otherwise) was not as big a deal during the 1980s as it is today. I think the story was that it was too cost prohibitive back then to recover derelict aircraft from an island with no port. Somewhere I have a horrible Zerox copy of the letter Tom Voll sent to the YAF, as well as the crude but somewhat discernable photos of various B-25, A-20, B-24 airframes (including one with a nice collection of sortie marks on the fuselage).

Makes me ill to think on it too long.

[Rob Mears]

Wow, ya beat me to the punch George

I too would enjoy some closure to this story. If I recall correctly, we had supposedly determined that the scrap man had been hired to clean up the old airfield. If I had a wish, it would be for one of the more notable savvy travelers to make a successful trip to Moratai and do a complete helicopter and ground search of the area. There's got to be something left out there.

It's a long shot, but could there be a chance those P-61 airframes came out of Moratai?

Rob - If the P-61s came off Morotai, they would have been dug up from the dumps there. The boneyard had rows of B-24s and A-20s, with the occasional Spitfire, Corsair, B-25, P-40 and a couple of C-54s. I would think the P-61s are from a burial dump on Biak, since so many of the type were left there. And I believe you are correct in that the YAF could not afford the retrieval and shipping costs. What could have been is a very sad thought indeed. Somehow they should have been saved.

George

Rob R - I was referring to Rob Mears but you responded to him before my post went through, so it looked like I was responding to you. And I guess Biak actually belongs to the western side of NG, Irian Jaya, and not PNG. I was only speculating on Biak due to the large volume of P-61s abandoned there and left to rot. Regarding Morotai, I'm really wondering if any westerner besides Tom Voll (in 1986) has been there since WW11. It sounds like the dumps must be still untouched on Morotai.

Take care,
George