A TR at last

So what are the odds of finding some trashed WW2 Warbirds in South America ?

I'd love to find an old warbird to restore, that would rule

 

How did he find a Wildcat in the first place? That has got to be a rare bird....

Is anyone building authentic construction replica WWII warbirds? After watching the program on the recovery and rebuild of the P-38 found in the ice, it doesn't seem like fabricating a new airframe would be all that much more work than what they did. It appeared that maybe 20% or so of the original plane remained.

 

Hey Sparky, as long as we're talking warbirds, here's a couple of tales for you. A Corvette buddy of mine had a neighbor whose father was a truck driver during WWII here in Arkansas. One day early in the war (early 1942 maybe?), he was driving his truck down the highway near some railroad tracks, next to a huge swampy area that covered several thousand acres. There was a large crowd of people and cars stopped up ahead on the side of the road. He thought it was a car wreck. As he stopped, he saw everybody standing at the side of the road looking out into the swamp. There in the swamp was a P-38 sitting in about 4 or 5 feet of water with the pilot standing on top of the plane. Pilot had some sort of trouble and had to ditch way out in the swamp. He was basically alright, but stranded in the middle of the swamp. Somebody eventually rounded up a small boat and went out to get the pilot. The incident was quickly forgotten during the turmoil of the war years.
And my question always was: what happened to the plane? The guy telling this tale knew his aircraft and was certain that it was a P-38. The swamp would have been very difficult to retreive an aircraft from. And new airplanes were being built every hour, so why waste time dragging a wrecked one out of a swamp. Much of the swamp area is still swamp to this day. I often wonder, out among the scrub pines, cypress trees, snakes and occasional alligator, if there is some silvery aluminum buried among the muddy brush. The area drys out during the summer occasionally. I was never able to accurately determine an exact date or location of the incident.
And speaking of aircraft "on ice" in Greenland, I have a copy of the USAF crash reports concerning an air rescue B-17 in Greenland that landed on the ice in 1948. It was never recovered as far as I know. It too may be buried under 1 to 200 feet of ice. As you can tell, I've done a bit of warbird research in my time.

 

I have been to the Lost Squadron museum in middlesboro, KY and seen the rescued P-38.
it was really cool.

http://thelostsquadron.com/

 

There was a P-39 in pieces in a hangar in Van Nuys as late as 1988 or 89 - no idea if it's still there

 

Congratulations on the TR!! It certainly is one of my favorite F-cars of all time, as well as the P-51 is my absolute favorite airplane from that era.

Do you fly the Mustang to air shows around the country?

 

Hi Steve,
Congratulations on the TR. Open up that exhaust so you can hear that flat 12 howl a little better. You know you want to, yes you do..........................................

I sent you a PM via Fchat info on various lifts for your TR.

DJ

 

28 year old carburetors. Just too busy to pull them and rebuild right now. I may have someone else do the rebuild if I find someone anal enough.

Makes me want to get a 512 TR as a backup.

 

Steve so whats the deal w the FAA and flying warbirds ? Can you use 1 as normal transport or only from 1 airshow to another airshow ?

 

I would love to have one in a medium gray metallic (grigio) with black dash and black/tan interior

 

Hi Steve,
Congrats on the new TR!

Any idea whose Boxer they've got hanging?

 

Steve,
My son, Dana ( Spazzo ), told me about his meeting you on F-Chat and sent me the thread that shows your P-51 and it turned me on again so I thought that I would say hello from an old pilot.
I didn't fly anything as big and powerful as Sparky but I know about P-51's from having a ride in " Worrybird " some years back when I was part of the 50th anniversary of the B-17 at Boeing.
Beautiful shot of the two Mustangs at Reno ! I flew in airshows 35 years ago with a one- aileron clown act and got to know and to fly with many of the old crowd like Art Scholl and Joe Hughs. Dana flew my old airplane home with me in the back seat catching a little snooze now and then so he is an old airshow kid too.
It would be nice to hear from you . I'm on F-chat, Northwest.
Bob Parks

 

You rock - Gotta love the blue TR's.

 

Cool story on your 51, wow $1200 back then which is about $60k today and warbirds now sell in the millions. I have a smaller flying P-51 with a 68" wingspan that I am unfortunately too big to get in. My grandfather flew
B-17s over Germany in WW2 and lived to tell about it, they were very fond of the little friends in the Mustangs and Thunderbolts.

Also interesting on the Rolls Royce engine, I would have assumed they would be very reliable, much better power of course than the Allison motor in the early P51 but I would have thought more reliable as well.

Congratulations on the TR as well, they are great cars, I have a flat 12 as well, the engines are bullet proof and one of the best built, reliable and longest lasting Ferrari motors made if well maintained.

 

Somewhere in all my collection of various items, I have one of the gauges out of the instrument panel of this P-51:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=3353&key=0
The gauge, like everything else, was bent. Nobody walked away.