marine air wrote:
No, they're not "manufacturing" P-38s. I wouldn't include the Mosquitos in the same list either. To me, there are aircraft types that are in such demand and will continue to be in the foreseeable future that an investor can justify paying $3 to $5 million for a data plate build. Investor gets on the phone on Monday and by Friday they've contracted with a shop to build them a new Mustang or Spitfire. P-51C's and Spitfire Mk IX's for example. We will see about P-47's. The Mosquito is more of a limited batch type rebuild. I would put them in the same category as the ME-262's, F3F's , Flug Werk Fw-190s and unfinished Oscars. Plus, the Mosquitos have lots of parts out there to source from. The P-51's and Spitfires now have every imaginable part able to be sourced new.
The P-40 might be the next type that you can have any model built mostly from scratch. Lots of good things going on .
I think you're splitting hairs. You are trying to differentiate "aircraft types that are in such demand" vs ones that are "limited batch". Where exactly do you draw the line? We are talking about "data plate rebuilds", which would make them ALL "limited batch rebuilds" would it not? its not like there are 1000s of even 100s or even 10s of "new-build", "old data plate" Mustangs rolling out of shops every year.
With regard to the P-38, if you were holding on to a P-38 registration/data plate and some bits of an airframe, and $ was no object, could you enter into a contract with a number of shops and have an all new metal build P-38 roll out of a hangar? I think we've seen that happen already.