Peruvian NA-50 Torito

[Tulio]

Recently, I found that there is a mess ongoing in Peru, all related to the "restoration" of the sole survivor in country, of the NA-50

This is a historic airframe, veteran of aerial combat against Ecuador's aircraft in the first half of the 20th century.

From what I understand, funding and expertise were promised -but never delivered- and from photos I have seen, all the airplane got was a new coat of paint.

I guess that it is now kept inside a hangar, after so many decades atop a pylon. That has to be good news.

Anyone here, has any information?

Edited

http://warbirdsnews.com/warbird-restora ... ghter.html



Saludos,


Tulio

[Zac Yates]

There had been a post here previously (link), I'd been wondering what the latest news was. Neither of the links in that post work for me and the Facebook page hasn't been updated since August.

Scramble.nl has this post about the completion dated 5 June without mention of the aircraft being airworthy or even a runner.

[Tulio]

From what I understamd, there were corrosion issues -of course!!- and the technical expertise and money promised, were never delivered.

The airplane is not even able to taxi, I understand.

While there seems to be an enthusiastic group behind the project, looks like they have hit a stopping point.


Saludos,


Tulio

[Noha307]

If you compare the before and after pictures, those do not appear to be the same wheels.

From what I understamd, there were corrosion issues -of course!!- and the technical expertise and money promised, were never delivered.

My guess is they were not prepared for the level of corrosion it appears to have, so the necessary level of investment was far greater than they expected. From the looks of it, you'd probably have to build or source a whole new wing center section.

[Tulio]

That would be my guess, too.

Once the immensity and cost were fully understood, maybe someone decided that it could not be done .


Saludos,



Tulio

[Matt Gunsch]

The center section is the same as the SNJ-2, and there are not that many around, would almost have to build from the drawings as not many T-6 parts interchange with the -2.

[bearoutwest]

Gents, it would seem this project is actually complete. Link to the Scramble magazine article below:

https://www.scramble.nl/military-news/p ... Z2PUzolCEU

(Virtual nod to Zac Yates for the website info, and as posted by him above.)

[Zac Yates]

I'd love to see more about the project, as mentioned prior it seems the initial EAA/enthusiast-driven project was taken over for reasons yet to be made public. I remember being excited at the time of the initial announcement at the prospect of this machine flying, even ceremonially.