Warbird Information Exchange

I still cant believe that they let that tail # go!

A friend of mine has his cub registered to the tail number on the goose.


NX37602 is Assigned

Aircraft Description

Serial Number 18757 Type Registration Individual
Manufacturer Name PIPER Certificate Issue Date 03/13/1968
Model J3C-65 MFR Year 1946 Fractional Owner NO

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"Hindsight is usually 20% off!"

OMG!!! Sad!!! Really? That's not cool. I mean, kinda cool for your friend, but, wow...

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"It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you have wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane." Charles Lindbergh

Steph,

You look right at home in the left seat! How cool is that! Do they normally allow visitors access to the Spruce Goose cockpit, or did you just charm your way in?

Did the folks at the musuem mention anything about flying any of the collection. I know that everything was kept airworthy several years ago, but I haven't heard about any of it flying in quite a while. The really do have some wonderfull stuff and it would be great to see it in the air where it belongs.

Steve S

Paul, sounds just like the other thread !

Wanna see my Spruce Goose,... little girl ?

Just got done with a very longgggg day at work and just now noticed your posting. Thanks for sharing the pics Steph...looks like you had a great time and a very memorable experience.

John

K, so a lot of them are listed as 'flyable'....but how many actually still FLY each season?

Flew in the B-17 once while chasing 'Sentimental Journey' around the pattern in AZ during an airshow...quite memorable...

The Corsair used to be flown by Howard Pardue when he owned it...

And the P-38 was restored by Darryl Skurich right here in CO...I have photos of it as a pile of parts...wait'll you see the A6M3 Zero he has goin on here being restored for Evergreen...

Mark

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Mark Morris

thanks steph.... the best detailed pics of the goose i've ever seen, & i've read every book on howard hughes imaginable!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

HA!

Mr. Hughes hated, no, he despised the moniker, "The Spruce Goose", that the press gave his "H-4 Flying Boat". It is the "Hughes H-4 Flying Boat". It is made of birch, not spruce.
My dad worked on the "Flying Boat". It was his duty to check humidity readings in the wings several times during his shift. (Steph is right about being able to walk out to the wing tips, dad did it every day).
He was also responsible for accepting or rejecting the deliveries of wood. Any small defect or warp, and the wood was not accepted. It is no secret that Mr. Hughes always knew exactly what he wanted and had extremely high expectations. All of those working for him held the same high standards of quality, or they wouldn't have been working for Hughes.
Any of you WIX'ers anywhere near Oregon, owe it to yourselves to visit the Evergreen Museum in McMinnville. You will not leave disappointed!

Hey Steph thanks for the great pics. That place is going to be a must for me to get to. I had no idea they had that many airplanes there.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Hi stephanie,

I'm glad you were able to make it to Evergreen. Looks like you had a great time. Nice pictures too. Lucky, when I went, I didn't get a chance to go inside the cockpit of the "Hercules" as I believe Mr. Hughes preferred to call it.

And becoming a volunteer. That's awesome. I hope I didn't put you up to that. None-the-less, I'm sure it'll be very rewarding.

Cheers,

David

I was very lucky to be able to tour the Marana facility about 15 years ago.

We walked into the first restoration hangar and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

They had just acquired the P-38 from Talichet and were in the process of restoring it. Evergreen had constructed a mold and they were stamping out aileron ribs in stainless steel.

Next to that was the P-40 they were getting ready to repaint. Infront of the P-40 was the TBM, they were doing an annual on it, off the right wing was the P-51, they had stripped it and they were in the process of removing the red leather interior, reinstalling the gun bays (the previous owner had made the wing wet ) and removing the air conditioner. The last aircrfat in the hangar was the FG-1D, they were prepping it for paint, they had just bought it from Howard Pardue.

I looked out the door and there was a pristine T-28 sitting on the ramp in standard training colors. Behind the T-28 a 727 was hanging out of the mostly closed hangar door. We ducked under the 727 and came face to face with a DC-3. We were told that the signatures in the logbook included Lindbergh and Hap Arnold. Supposedly it was the DC-3 flown by Arnold that caused him to make the decision to by the early versions for the Air Corp. Right behind the DC-3, was the B-17 the Spitfire was off of the right wing and the Stearman in Stephs pictures was pulled in tight with the other two.

It was an eye opening experience !

You gotta wonder if these aircraft would have continued to fly if Michael Smith had not been killed.

I don't believe they are flown regularly like they used to be. I can remember when they were flown fairly regularly when Bill Muszala used to fly for them. In about 1995 or so I worked on a commercial for Lucky Strike Cigarettes (they still have television ads for cigs in Europe). It was filmed on the USS Lexington and Bill piloted the Corsair for the commercial and he did some awesome low level passes on the deck of the Lexington that came just feet from being touch and gos. It was really cool sitting in the airboss station on the Lexington and seeing a Corsair in the pattern definitely a once in a lifetime experience for someone born in 1978.

We built 1 life sized and 2 1/6 scale fiberglass Corsair models for the crash scenes. It was pretty cool.

That Evergreen Museum is a really nice setup. As a side note I almost ended up with a 1 ft piece of fabric from the Hercules. I went to the restoration shop when they were still working on her and a guy game me a piece of the old fabric (they were recovering the elevators) to look at. We were talking and wasn't paying attention and walked out the the fabric in the pile of paperwork I had. I felt so bad that I took the piece back I felt like I had stolen a piece of history. Now that I look back at it I probably should have just kept it who know it probably got dumped in the trash for all I know.

Stephanie, nice shots there you have there with your W70. I love all my Sonys. When I was there they didn't let me sit in the Pilot seat or the Herc but then again I'm not nearly as cute as you either lol. I will have to tell them to give me the "Stephanie Tour" when I get up there again.

PS anyone know what is up with B-25J Super Rabbit? Last time I was at Evergreen it was sitting there behind the hangar.

Ryan

Ryan, first time I did an overnight on the Lexington with the Boy Scouts your Corsair was still up on the deck. It was sitting on a dolly so they could move it around. You guys did a really nice job. It really looked real until you got close.