Warbird Information Exchange

Some of you folks take this stuff waaaaay too seriously. An efort has been made to preserve the nose art. We'll see what the new owner decides to do when he is ready to let us in on his plans.

So is the field applied nose art more important than the factory applied stencils and markings? If you could only preserve on or the other, which would it be?

Are field applied combat markings more important than the nose (folk) art?

What exactly is being destroyed? and here I thought I had the inside scoop

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Don't touch my junk!!

How about the boot prints from the ground crew that are still on the wing? How often has anyone laid their eyes on something like that?
I was just looking at the Dottie Mae this afternoon and it never fails to make the hair on my neck stand up. It's a time capsule and with it's history and remarkable condition, it is in my opinion, the single most significant fighter restoration in the world today.

It's all very important, the stencils, the markings, the foot prints, the nose art (awesome) and believe me.... the owner, the recovery team and the restoration team all understand this. There were some people out there who would have been perfectly happy getting their hands on it and restoring this airplane back to a stocker with some ordinary markings, but fortunately, these are not those kind of people.
They know what they have and it means way more to them than it does to us observers that are on the sidelines. It's in very good hands!

Now that the artwork has been out of the water for some time, it is beginning to peel.).[/quote]

Sorry Jack this is what I am talking about.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I did say trivial. D'ya want us to answer the question or wot?

Thanks for the update, JCP. Good to hear.

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Its all important but if I had to grade it I would say the nose art is the most important as its an artistic creation and unique to the airframe. Factory markings and stencils are very interesting, if original and untouched, but they are not unique and to a large degree are a known quantity (although there are always surprises!). Field applied markings are also historically important and unique to the aircraft, if not unique in style and format.

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Warbird Colour - Authentic historic aircraft finishes http://www.warbirdcolour.co.uk

I have to agree with John-Curtiss Paul, this is a very important restoration and it will be amazing to see a P-47 beautifully restored to the level that the P-51 Happy Jack's Go Buggy was.

I agree that it is ALL important. But unless it is being cleaned up and put back together ala Flak Bait, where do you draw the line? Since it will be a flyer, practically none of the original finishes can be kept. So you have to pick your battles so to speak. The nose art is the most important piece that can be saved to me and can be done relatively easily. The other markings field or factory... they will have to be docomented with as many photos as can be taken. And then take some more. Take tracings, measurments, etc. so they can be reproduced as exactly as possible. Colors are important too.

The foot prints on the wing? Wow, it would be cool to see that. If the wing is getting reskinned, that would be incredible to save. Any skins that need replaced? Save them. Maybe sell a few of them to help fund the restoration.

So no current photos yet? No photos of the foot worn wings or close ups of the nose art?

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Sure, Charles Lindbergh flew the plane... but Tom Rutledge built the engine!

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