Gary ~ What's The Plan For Diamond Lil ? 2006 and Beyond!

[Blackwing]

Thus the paradox.................You may be offended by the nude image of the woman but not by the thread which is, in essence, the rebuilding to original of a machine designed and built by man to do nothing more than destroy, maim and kill the very same.....tough line to walk...OK


Now back to the thread.........Hey Uncle Gary, what's up next to fix?

[RyanShort1]

I'm posting something in response on a new thread... I don't want to hijack Gary's.

Ryan

[mustangdriver]

The B-24 is cool. I wonder why at this point the USAF didn't say, "Hey this is the last one in service, maybe we should save it." I know it is not a stock Lib, but I think it would be cool to see it in a museum or flying.

[retroaviation]

I wonder why at this point the USAF didn't say, "Hey this is the last one in service, maybe we should save it."

Well, because Ol' 927 was still flying, of course!

Gary

[mustangdriver]

Ah!! You got me.

[Chris Brame]

"Hey this is the last one in service, maybe we should save it."

Oh... but they did:

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b24regis ... 51228.html

Were there any other examples of postwar USAF B-24s besides C-87 or C-109 variants?

[RickH]

Chris is right Mustang Driver. The people in control of all things historical regarding the USAF thought so much of the last B-24 that they left it outside for roughly 50 years. Fortunately they realized that they needed a another Spitfire and a Beaufighter in Dayton so they traded it to England. The people over there thought enough of it to not only begin a long overdue restoration they actually put it inside !

[mustangdriver]

Rick, do you need some of the Koolaide? I think that the American Air Museum is a great home for it. That is wild that it did survive.

[RickH]

Nope, I think its great that it is finally being taken care of the way it should have been all along. If mgmt had not decided that they wanted the other two airplanes then the B-24 would still be sitting on the parade ground at Lackland.

Now if we could get the people who "control " (their words ) all of these other priceless relics to think about long term preservation ( other than those that are actually at Dayton ) it would be great. Replace the real ones with fiberglass the way that the Brits did with the Spitfires, do something please, but get them out of the weather. There are aircraft that have no business out in the weather but they continue to be allowed to deteriorate. Why is a real former flying P-38 allowed to sit outside on a pole. Most people couldn't teel the difference from a real one to a fiberglass replica. Why not sell or trade said aircraft to someone who would care for it , expend mass amponts of funding on it, and preserve it for generations in its own element ? The NMUSAF would then have large amounts of cashflow to enhance further the main museum.

By General Metcalf's own admission they "control" over 3000 aircraft ! This is ridiculous, they can't possibly oversee that many aircraft successfully, and the condition of many reflect the curren t policies.

No, I don'think I would care for any of their "KoolAid", thanks anyway, I prefer my own drink. We get aircraft and make them fly in spite of the other guys policies !

[retroaviation]

Howdy everyone. I'm sorry that I've been pretty much useless to this thread lately and left y'all hanging, but I've just not done anything really noteworthy on the B-24 this past week. Thankfully, Scott and Ellen showed up yesterday to get some forward progress made. Scott's been working on better bracing and stronger mounting positions for those radio operator section troop seats that we've installed. Ellen has been doing a bunch of little odds and ends here and there that need done, but unfortunately, I'm running out of "unskilled labor" items for folks. What's left is pages of items that pretty much all require skilled hands to get them done. So, even though the unveiling has come and gone, I'm still in somewhat of a bind since there's so much left to do with our scheduled tour stops closing in on us rapidly. I bet I fielded half a dozen phone calls yesterday from different Squadron members wanting to know when it'll be done. Oh, how I love those calls. ..."Hey Gary! Man, you should take a break. You deserve it. Oh, by the way, we reeeeeaaly wish you'd get that thing done so that we can fly it." My answer is pretty much the same as always...I'm trying. (But in reality, during this past week, I've just been struggling with staying focused on the project. Maybe I'll get my mind back into it soon. I know that lots and lots of folks are relying on me.)

Anyway, I'll try to be more productive with the posts here on WIX, and I'll try to be more productive on the airplane as well. Perhaps I'll be able to give y'all short photo update later today or early tomorrow.

Gary

[JDK]

Hang in there Gary, this is the point in any project when it's a load of no-fun, but you are probably closer than you think to the end*.

One day you'll look back on all this and say: "Kids, lemmie tell y'all a story. Once upon a time there was a looong internety thread..."

Cheers!
James






*That may be 'the end of the project', 'the end of a working relationship', 'the end of your sanity', 'the end of the rope', 'the end of the world' or 'the end of the Bugs Bunny movie'. But I'm sure there's an end around there somewhere.

[retroaviation]

Thanks James. Funny stuff.

Gary

[JDK]

Whatever way it pans out, soon you'll be able to say "That's all folks!"

Just remember not to try and light the carrot, it's not a cigar.

[mustangdriver]

Nope, I think its great that it is finally being taken care of the way it should have been all along. If mgmt had not decided that they wanted the other two airplanes then the B-24 would still be sitting on the parade ground at Lackland.

Now if we could get the people who "control " (their words ) all of these other priceless relics to think about long term preservation ( other than those that are actually at Dayton ) it would be great. Replace the real ones with fiberglass the way that the Brits did with the Spitfires, do something please, but get them out of the weather. There are aircraft that have no business out in the weather but they continue to be allowed to deteriorate. Why is a real former flying P-38 allowed to sit outside on a pole. Most people couldn't teel the difference from a real one to a fiberglass replica. Why not sell or trade said aircraft to someone who would care for it , expend mass amponts of funding on it, and preserve it for generations in its own element ? The NMUSAF would then have large amounts of cashflow to enhance further the main museum.

By General Metcalf's own admission they "control" over 3000 aircraft ! This is ridiculous, they can't possibly oversee that many aircraft successfully, and the condition of many reflect the curren t policies.

No, I don'think I would care for any of their "KoolAid", thanks anyway, I prefer my own drink. We get aircraft and make them fly in spite of the other guys policies !

Rick I know that you are not a fan of the NMUSAF because of the deal with the F-105, but when taking on a project like that you have to understad that there is a chance that the museum would be against it. They are very careful when dealing aircraft of a higher technology than the piston aircraft. You are angry about the way that they did it, but if you had a chance to do the same to get the aircraft, you would of. I think what you guys do is great. I have many hours working on "909" as well. Both museums are important the flying and non flying. The NMUSAF keeps to use your stats 3,000 aircraft on static display. Remember that some museums are made up of only what is on loan to them from national air museums. We do our best, and are improving the conditions of many of these aricraft. There is also alot of politics involved. Anytime we tell a local group or air museum that they need to improve the status of the aircraft, or that we are going to remove it from their custody, we have a fight with the local government, lawyers, and it gives us more bad P.R. Just for doing what you are saying we should do. I do agree with you that fiberglass replicas should replace most of the gate guards with the exception(maybe) of the P-38 at Mcguire AFB. That aircraft is cared for to high standards, and is a source of moral for the guys at that baase. If these planes come off of gate guard duty, they are most likely going to be static display in museums because they are still owned by the national museums. Remeber that the NMUSAF had a very cool way to deal with people that wanted aircraft, until that was abused. I was there to see it first hand.

[retroaviation]

That would be a perfect topic on a different thread, don't you think?

Gary