Lufthansa spent $163 Mill to Restore Lockheed Constellation

[Stephan Wilkinson]

In Lufthansa's defense, though they really don't deserve it, the company claims that the bulk of the $163 million came from outside donors.

One of the problems, by the way, was that the man in charge of the entire project, Andreas Pakszies, had exactly zero experience with aircraft restoration. He also continued to live in Germany and commuted to Maine, where the airplane was being restored. Obviously, there was little active oversight, and when the cat's away...

[Chris Brame]

Too bad the plane couldn't go to an outfit with the wherewithal to finish it, trading it for one of the non-flyers to put in the museum.

[marine air]

It reminds me a bit of the restoration of P-38 “Glacier Girl.” The retrieval effort started with a lot of press and enthusiasm. Eventually it took one of te investors, Mr Shofner to keep feeding the costs until they got all the crushed pieces of one P-38 above ground.
The other investors backed out and it became Mr Shofner’s mangled mess in Middlesboro, Kentucky. No warbird expertise or shops existed at that time. The tail booms had to be completely rebuilt. Once finished, they were out of alignment by a half inch or. They were sent to Chino and reworked and made right. The booms were installed, the engines and props ,gear very early in the process. They had a wooden staircase was built and sometimes they let people sit in the cockpit.
During this time someone thought it’d be cool to raise the gear handle. The gear collapsed getting the props, right wing and of course crumpling the tail booms. The booms were sent back to Chino and rebuilt for the third time.
During its restoration, five P-38s came up for sale including two at the same time for around $800, 000. USD. He literally could’ve bought two flying P-38s for $1.5 mill and declared victory.
He hired a project manager who was retired Army Aviation and this helped. Mr Shofner invested in Glacier Girl as he had flown jet fighters in the Air Force and wanted to fly the P-38 himself. In failing health and wheelchair bound, he got to see Steve Hinton fly it . Eighteen years and $18 mill later he got to see it fly. Some speculated the only reason it was actually finished was because the owner was dying.

[marine air]

It reminds me a bit of the restoration of P-38 “Glacier Girl.” The retrieval effort started with a lot of press and enthusiasm. Eventually it took one of te investors, Mr Shofner to keep feeding the costs until they got all the crushed pieces of one P-38 above ground.
The other investors backed out and it became Mr Shofner’s mangled mess in Middlesboro, Kentucky. No warbird expertise or shops existed at that time. The tail booms had to be completely rebuilt. Once finished, they were out of alignment by a half inch or. They were sent to Chino and reworked and made right. The booms were installed, the engines and props ,gear very early in the process. They had a wooden staircase was built and sometimes they let people sit in the cockpit.
During this time someone thought it’d be cool to raise the gear handle. The gear collapsed getting the props, right wing and of course crumpling the tail booms. The booms were sent back to Chino and rebuilt for the third time.
During its restoration, five P-38s came up for sale including two at the same time for around $800, 000. USD. He literally could’ve bought two flying P-38s for $1.5 mill and declared victory.
He hired a project manager who was retired Army Aviation and this helped. Mr Shofner invested in Glacier Girl as he had flown jet fighters in the Air Force and wanted to fly the P-38 himself. In failing health and wheelchair bound, he got to see Steve Hinton fly it . Eighteen years and $18 mill later he got to see it fly. Some speculated the only reason it was actually finished was because the owner was dying.

[DH82EH]

Hopefully these didn't all end up in a bin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr88hFNm6D8

[DH82EH]

Doop