Who Likes Aircraft ?

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tank hunter

 

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drone 45

 

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[68gtxman]

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Tommy B. McGuire, the second leading ace of WWII. McGuire AFB has a replica (real) plane on a stick of his last P38. The base had once been offered $5M for this plane and a fiberglass replica replacement. Of course the offer was turned down. The plane is demounted and fully restored about every 10 years. Everything except the props are flight worthy. The props were bent on landing at the base, when it first arrived as the nose gear broke and the props struck the runway. They couldn’t find replacements in the inventory, so they hammered them back to straight. He named his plane Pudgy, a pet name that he had for his wife.

 

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I remember when that Lighting was mounted at the base. Air Classics did a good story on it. I was in high school then. I wrote the base commander at the time and expressed my feelings on this valuable piece of history being subjected to the weather and said that it would be better for it to be on display indoors. The commander replied (still have the letter) and assured me that the plane would be taken care of. Typical government wastefulness to have to restore it every ten years.

 

[68gtxman]

I remember when that Lighting was mounted at the base. Air Classics did a good story on it. I was in high school then. I wrote the base commander at the time and expressed my feelings on this valuable piece of history being subjected to the weather and said that it would be better for it to be on display indoors. The commander replied (still have the letter) and assured me that the plane would be taken care of. Typical government wastefulness to have to restore it every ten years.

Cool story! I served under that commander, since I was stationed there when we first mounted the plane.

The restoration is performed by volunteers, so the only cost is minimal for supplies. All aircraft that are part of the USAF museum must be kept in as close to airworthiness as possible, as part of the agreement to have the aircraft on loan. They get a lot of volunteers to do the restoration because it seems that everyone wants to touch the aircraft.

Here is what was once part of a diner in Penndel, PA. When the diner closed, the new owner donated it to the USAF museum. It was shipped to Dover AFB and it was fully restored to flying condition by volunteers. It sure is beautiful!

 

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Dover AFB does quality work. They did Shoo Shoo Baby

then they restored the B-17 the Air Force Museum had first, which Dover got to keep.

 

[Duckmanreno]

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Corsair is my favorite!

 

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