Warbird Information Exchange

As seen at Foster Field, Victoria, Texas, on March 12, 2008. I was told this bird is one of several owned by the same guy, and that the rest of 'em are flying fish around in Alaska. This one was parked about three years ago and stripped of parts (number 3 and 4 nacelles sport bare firewalls, sorry, my cam batt's died).

DC-6, sad to see especially after seeing photos of the Red Bull DC-6....

It's a -6? Hmm, looks like I could use a little educating. And what's up with the Red Bull -6?

You Tube has several videos of the beautifully polished Red Bull DC-6 over in Europe, check it out. I'd provide a link but I'm not the greatest at computers. DC-4s had round fuselage windows, 6s and 7s had square windows.

Ah, gotcha. I got the idea that something bad happened to the RB ship, whew! Beautiful airplane, alright ... kinda makes you want to go to Victoria and start polishing 40 acres of aluminum, doesn't it?

If I recall correctly, the -4 was non-pressurized, and the -6 and up were? Thus the "square" windows?

Yup.

if it's the same outfit (Universal based in TX) there will be 3 snowed in a Kenai, AK ready for summer flying

131585/43688/USN ?

This is c/n 43688, USN R6D-1, Bu#131585, N1037F, Registered to UNIVERSAL AIRLINES INC.

Interesting!!

Same airplane, seen at Laredo, TX in March 2001!





Saludos,


Tulio

Here she is as of last saturday!!!





No nose, no engines and no tires.

Poor, poor old girl!

I wonder where the nose went? It sucks that the airplane is dying a slow, painful death, but the nose would be a neat one to have on display...especially with that nose art.

Gary

vivisection.., it is awful!!!!!!!!1

I thought I'd read on some site that the nose section had been purchased for preservation. I can't find it now though.

Well, here's the scoop. I was part of the recovery crew that removed the nose to my friends museum....
This is the quick and dirty version of our trip….I have pics but have never posted. If someone wants, I can send them to them to post....

We headed down to Victoria TX. Friday morning, Got to The airport about 4 in the afternoon and unloaded our gear. Friday night was going good and got a lot done working till about 8:00.

Hit it hard Sat. Morning building the cradle from the premade parts we had put together in Okc…. Got a lot of preliminary work done cutting all the cables and wiring and cutting the 4 magnesium floor beams. Hooked up the hydraulic mule to raise the nose gear, then did all we could to clear the cut area and finish building the cradle….

Sunday dawned with the crew hard at it finishing up bits and pieces, building our safety shoring and prepping the cut with some plunge cuts with the gas saw. My friends Mark and Clem flew up from Houston and added to the crew, made a big contribution to the effort. The 10K fork lift showed up and we started cutting. All went well and a big thanks to Adam who made all the cuts. It would have taken me two days to do what he did in 4 hours. The old girl gave a loud pop when he made the final few inches and we had here apart. Now the fun.

When you take a 10,000 lb. forklift to lift what is supposed to be 5,000 lbs. of fuselage but in reality is 13/15,000 lbs. the forklift starts to tilt and the rear tires come off the ground. He couldn’t pivot without traction and couldn’t let it down to get traction because of the rear portion in the way…. We were stuck for about 2 hrs. trying to figure out what to do. Our only alternative was to somehow get the rear portion out of the way, so we hooked on to the rear supports on the tail and yanked them out. Luckily, the rear portion moved away before it dropped too far and we were clear. The forklift was able to put the load lower and angle it back to get traction and we loaded it on the flat bed. We left there around 8:00 Sunday night and drove till 6:00 Monday morning to get home to Okc. Got the old girl in the hangar Monday afternoon about 6:00….

The effort by all was outstanding. Everyone went about their jobs and coordinated every move. No one was hurt too badly, other than some scrapes and small nicks, and it was a good move. All I have to say is I haven’t worked that hard in three days in the last 15 years and I can feel it. Now the nose will be restored to her former glory in the museum that Mark Howard is putting together. We have pics of her in 1975 dolled up in Marine markings at Andrews. Mark plans on documenting her military use with a split scheme....military on one side and airliner on the other. A lot of restoration has been done already.

Man, am I glad it’s over! Tailwinds to all, Steve.