Warbird Information Exchange

The Napolean Corsair bit got me thinking.
Lets hear some more barn stories..
I have 2 to get things rolling.

#1-A very reliable person I know was in contact with someone that was in the know at the local air force museum and had this interesting tid bit: They (the local Air Force Musem) was checking out the strong possiblilty of a P-61 under the water in a lake in a southern Minneapolis suburb.

#2 When working an airshow in North Dakota the airport caretaker dropped this doosey on me: We used to have a P-38 like that one (BP had his there) on the field until about 1975. I asked him what happend to it, and he replied, "the city would not let me buy it, so when the High School graduating class was looking for something to demolish, they bought it for $75. He Taxied it over to the spot where that years grads tore it apart with axes and chain saws...You should have seen the look on his face when I told him what a P-38 fetched at the Santa Monica Auction earlier that year....

Anyone else???

One of the many stories Mr. Soplata had told me was of "white 94", the F2G racer with clipped wings that sat at Cleveland's airport for years. He tried to obtain it, but was denied. The airport fire department used it for burn practice . The remains are still buried there.

The engine, and engine mount from Race 94 were saved by the Crawford museum. I believe that the mount actually made its way into Bob Odegaard's Race 57. The remains of Race 94 were burned, and then dumped in a gully, which has since been filled in. This action was one of the reasons that Walt Soplata bore such a grudge against Crawford for many years. Walt had tried to save #94, but Crawford got it, and believing he'd save the aircraft, he left him too it... turned out all they wanted was the engine. Strange the things we regreat as time goes by!

Anyway, I believe that fuel storage tanks were built on top of the filled in gully. Apparently this gully was a real treasure trove of interesting aviation ephemera though, as NASA Lewis (then NACA) used to dump all sorts of stuff in there, as well as parts from the bomber plant (also on the same airfield). It has taken on a sort of legendary status with some of the aviation minded locals.

Cheers,
Richard