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Post by pat perry on Aug 31, 2007 1:20:00 GMT 9
Our own Chief o the Darts and Daggers (Ralph Robledo) and the restoration team have completed the repaint of the WB-50 at Castle Air Museum. It looks brand new. Judy and I were there in June and Ralph was dressed for painting and it was already getting HOT! click picture to see slide show Pat Perry 456th FIS
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Post by daoleguy A.J. Hoehn (deceased) on Aug 31, 2007 2:17:30 GMT 9
Beautiful work folks. I am jealous of your toys! Here's some more WB-50's. www.awra.us/gallery-sep05.htmlNot trying to take away from the WB-50 thread here, but I would love to work restoration again. In 1975 on Andrews, six of us restored a P-40N (Kittyhawk) now on display with the Smithsonian. I had the time of my life. My Ex was not to thrilled having the instrument panel all over the kitchen table for three months. The Smithsonian Annex close to Andrews was kind enough to supply me with period paint and watchglass for indicators. General Mike Collins (Apollo 11) accepted the bird for the museum. We wanted to make it flyable, but the powers to be said, "No Way!". Pat are any of the aircraft at the museum flyable? It broke our hearts to see the wings taken off for the flatbed ride to the Air and Space. Our reward was invitations to the pre-opening black tie in June of 1976. Here you had six NCO's used to beer and chips, wandering around drinking single malt and eating snacks with weird names. After sitting in the cockpit I really wonder how they crammed John Wayne in the bird with a chute. At 5'11" sitting on the empty seat I could barely close the canopy without dinging my head. BTW guys, how far did you take the cockpit and interiors of the WB-50? I would love to see that. Here's the P-40 at the Dulles Annex: I noticed you all have a B-36 on site. Maybe someone here can answer this. On Chanute in 1969 there was a B-36. I swear it looked shorter than other ones I have seen. Rumor was it lost 30 feet of fuselage somehow (accident?). I will be watching for that bird's restoration to get rolling. When I was a kid they used to take off over my house from the Griff. I saw what looked like B-29s T/O from the Griff too. Not sure, they may have been B-50's. AJ - Da Ole Guy
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Lee Nellist
F-106 Skilled
Founding Member
Currently: Offline
Posts: 189
Location:
Joined: April 2004
Retired: USAF
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Post by Lee Nellist on Aug 31, 2007 4:51:34 GMT 9
The B36 at the CAM (believe it or not) IS the one that was at Chanute. I marched past that puppy twice a day when I was in electrician school at Chanute. I also heard at one time that 30' had been taken out of it but the explanation I heard was because it kept tipping down on the rear end in the wind. Be interesting to find out what really happened. Incidentally, marching past it was in 1957. :yellowbeer: :yellowbeer: Lee Nellist
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Post by pat perry on Sept 1, 2007 1:11:32 GMT 9
The B36 at the CAM (believe it or not) IS the one that was at Chanute. I marched past that puppy twice a day when I was in electrician school at Chanute. I also heard at one time that 30' had been taken out of it but the explanation I heard was because it kept tipping down on the rear end in the wind. Be interesting to find out what really happened. Incidentally, marching past it was in 1957. Lee Nellist Lee, that was indeed the same RB-36 you marched past at Chanute. The CAM web site has a lot of the details of that bird - click here It came to CAM on 11 railroad flat cars and took over a year to reassemble. Found no mention of cutting out a section of fuselage. But its probably in one of the books or videos referenced on the link at the bottom of the CAM RB-36 page (Goleta Museum). AJ, to my knowledge, none of the aircraft are flyable at CAM. The Goletta link takes you to some cockpit pics taken few years ago. Those instruments that are there look pretty good but there is some stuff missing. We have the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in the DFW area and 85% of their collection still flys. Click HereSadly, we had a restored B-36 here in Ft Worth. It had been on display for years and the sun, birds and hail storms had pretty much ruined it. There were plans to have a hangar built at the FW JRB to house the aircraft after its latest refurbishment. It sat in large pieces at a hangar at Lockheed Martin and I guess the display hangar deal fell through and she was moved out to PIMA Air Museum in Tucson. Click hereI guess since Convair built both the F-106 and the B-36, you could call them Beauty & the Beast Thanks, Pat Perry
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Post by daoleguy A.J. Hoehn (deceased) on Sept 1, 2007 7:31:04 GMT 9
I still think it was beautiful bird. As a kid I watched them take off over my house. Trust me it was more impressive than the B-47's and B-52s that followed. I cannot believe it was the same 36 we snuck to at night in Chanute and accessed. I still say it looked shorter at Chanute. It was sure sorry interior wise at that time.
I remember as a kid my dad, a former B-29 pilot, helped me build a model of the plane. Sadly as a kid I put it over a lamp to show it off and the plastic melted. Broke my heart. Impressive aircraft especailly to an eight year old loving planes. I saw it at an open house, I was more impressed. The only thing that amazed me more on size more was seeing the Shuttle transport the morning it dead dropped Enterprise over the deasert. It was colder than hell that AM. I still cannot believe the 747 body modifed actually could fly with the shuttle on it . It did! Awesome.
AJ - Da Ole Guy
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