Warbird Information Exchange

Hmmm, a brake, roller, shrinker, duct tape and a few rivet guns, well fly her out by spring...

And this is the only place I could say that were at least one of you might agree

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Andrew King
Air Museum Director with no Museum to Direct
Open to Suggestions

Take a peek at any of the photos of LBG at her original crash site, wikipedia is the quickest to locate. It is amazing to see how little is left of this airplane today as she sits in her new location. No comparison.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

I wonder what aircraft the four-bladed propeller is from? C-119?

It is obvious that this aircraft could never be restored, and actually its history is best preserved in the present crashed condition. But Libya has not need, place or resources to make a good display of this craft. Perhaps with the improved relations between our countries after the present revolution, NASM could ask for at least the forward fuselage to be displayed at Udvar-Hazy.

NASM has long desired a B-24 but none seem to be forthcoming, and they may not have adequate room for a complete B-24, a B-17 (Shoo-Shoo-Shoo-Baby?) and the Enola Gay. The forward fuselage would fill a need there, both in being a B-24 and as a memorial.

If that does make sense to WIXers, what to do with the rest of the craft in Libya? It would harder to justify the room for displaying all that remains, and the remains are badly scavenged.

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Kevin McCartney

For the record anything can be restored all you need is a toolbox full of green stuff with numbers.... this would be a great addition to paul allens collection since he likes birds with combat history....

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Andrew King
Air Museum Director with no Museum to Direct
Open to Suggestions

Paul Allen would be the man. Not only does he have the desire, he also has a SNAP-ON toolbox that you have to pull with a tractor trailer full of green numbered tools. When he runs out of tools, he has a whole warehouse full of more boxes.... What a guy....

Mark H

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Fly safe or you get to meet me .......

I think NASM would be a great candidate since they lack a B-24, and there probably isn't one with more provenance than that one. If they only had room for the forward fuselage, then crate up the rest for storage until someday when the would have room. It would be cool to see at the NMUSAF too. A sandy diorama would be the best display option for LBG. A cool option for display would be to dim the lights every hour and use lighting to do some kind of holographic crewmen "ghosts".

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

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May be wrong on a couple of items, however a Nashvillian, Gen. John C.Tune got retrieved a couple of Seversky P-35's from Sweden for the U.S. Air Force museum just for the asking. Back in the 1970's they had absolutely no value to the Swedes, who prefer Saabs. THe U.S.interest spurred the Swedes to preserve one for themselves.
MY guess is the reason the LBG was stored at the police station and now the Libyan Air Force Base is some kind of a war prize. "Look, we shot down the U.S. infidels weapon of aggression." I doubt the average recruit would ever find out the truth. Why would they have any appreciation for American technology or history?
THey export oil and terrorists, 85% of the oil goes to Italy. THis bomber's one and only combat mission was over Naples, and didn't "Il Duce'" lose that one for Italy? There are a few American and other advisers to the pretroleum industry, a handful, over there.
IN that extremely arid environment, a lot of the aircraft should be okay. THere have been a lot worse rebuilt to flying, especially some of the Spitfires, Bf-109's, and Mustangs. It looks like they used chainsaws to disassemble it. Not the first time that has happend to a warbird.

"Why, That's just CRAZY enough to work!" Glenn Quagmire

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1942 Dodge WC-51 Weapons Carrier
I am a reenactor, have been since the early 1980s, and I am an aviation enthusiast, PILOT, A&P mechanic, and military vehicle owner. I have restored cars, trucks, and antique radios. These are MY hobbies- What are YOURS?.

Absolutely. Any "restoration" instead of "preservation" would only disturb this unique artifact. It may not technically be a grave, but I would like to see it treated with a similar level of respect.

NASM should make a bid for the Barksdale B-24 ... but that's another story.

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

[img][IMG]http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l525/bcmj/DSC01213.jpg[/img][/img]
Here's a pic of LBG prop I took at Dayton last year.
Question, What was the name of the movie somewhat based on LBG last mission, was it something like Sole survivor ?

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BCMJ

uh.... Sole Survivor.....

Then before it, the TWILIGHT ZONE had "King 9 will not return" about a B-25 found in the desert. Pretty fast too since the LBG was found about 2 years before the ZONE aired. But they found the crew bodies about 7 months before this episode aired and I'm guessing that had something to do with it.... Aero Trader still has the prop B-25 in its collection.

Mark H

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Fly safe or you get to meet me .......

Based on what's in this link, it seems as though they recovered her because they understood the historic value she represents. It's unlikely that CQ even knew about her, to be honest; he's had a lot simpler stuff to spin for propaganda than a WW2 bomber. Add to that Libya's had a historically fairly high quality of education, and I doubt even the greenest recruit would be able to believe something that far fetched.

http://www.qmfound.com/lady_be_good_b-2 ... covery.htm

let's try that link again. Looks like you have too many [img] thingies in your post...

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Great pic! I'm always fascinated by the LBG display at the museum. I took a fair number of photos on my last visit this past spring..







The personal artifacts are the most poignant part of the display..











And of course the beautiful window from the Chapel at Wheelus AFB..



There used to be an aileron on display, but I'm not sure where it is now. I've heard another one of her props is here in Michigan somewhere. One of these days I'm gonna have to track it down.

SN