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August, funny and creative man. You missed one thing though, the movie Memphis Belle will have Jelly beans painted on it in order to preserve accuracy.
As far as the RP-63, and actually bringing things to people's attention, I did just that. I explained to one of my contacts the deal, and they are talking about turning the P-63 already at the museum back into a stock P-63, and bringing the RP-63 to the NMUSAF. Will it happen? I don't know, but I atleast got people talking about it. That is better than nothing.
I am sorry but I disagree with saying it is OK for a museum or group to be able to paint an airplane anyway they want, but only the national Museums are held to a different standard. Do I see it as a huge deal for the H-19 to be painted as a differnet model? No. Taylor, where you are confused is it would be like an art museum having to completely restore the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is a very historic painting. But what if there were only so many canvas out there, and you had to tell the story the best you could of the evalution of art? Some of the canvas have very historic paintings on them. Great, you preserve them and display them. but then you have these blank canvas as well. Remember there are only so many of them, and you must tell the story of the evalution of art from early years till today. Well then I'd bet you there would be some tribute art work in there.
If the NMUSAF would take the Swoose, and say we think we are going to paint it blue, then yes, I would be inline to throw stuff at them. But saying that putting representative schemes on some aircraft that don't have a huge history is wrong and so horrible, is just silly, especially if the aircraft is a restoration of using several large pieces of different aircraft together, or is just a rare example that has no huge history. In my eyes it is your duty to take that example and tell a story with it. To be honest if the museum wasn't a favorite target of some, this conversation wouldn't even happen.
August the museum is trying to get away from doing representative schems by going through it's collection of aircraft on loan, and if there is a key example that has history, they move it to Dayton to the main collection. There are several examples of this..."RB-47, Memphis Belle, "Haymaker" F-86, and so on. This is a process though and will take some time. Many, many years no doubt. As for the more rare airframes, they try and give it a nice accurate paint scheme for an aircraft off of the line so that a guy that flew F-84's can show his family.
Taylor, where you are getting confused is between what is right and what is allowed. If I get a combat veteran P-47, restore it, and then when time comes for a paintscheme, I say paint it purple with pink stripes rather than putting it in it's combat veteran scheme. According to you that is allowed, and you are right it is. However it isn't right. If I restore a P-47 and it has no combat history and I say, paint it purple with pink stripes. it is allowed, sure, but once again it isn't right. More people would appreciate, learn from, and veterans honored by painting the aircraft in a representative scheme.
Saying that it is OK for some, but not Ok for others is not correct. You may not like the Gen., but he is not who decides on the scheme (atleast alone). Go back earlier and read about it. Markings, even representative ones, also help tell the story and honor the men who were associated with this aircraft. Not every airplane is the Enola Gay. Some just have nothing in their history, or some were produced to late and never had any markings. Now they are one of the last airframes left.
One example no one mentioned is another night fighter. The P-61. The Museums P-61 is a P-61C representing a P-61B named "Moonlight Seranade" The museum restoration crew went and made a very accurate Top Turret for the P-61. C models did not use the turret, but the B did. So now it has a top turret and looks like a very complete B model. They also have added a ton of equipment to the P-61 and are making a new tail plexi tail cone. But it is a representative scheme. So you must not like it right. now consider this. For many years this was the ONLY P-61 on display in the US, and the only preserved example on display in the world. It is the only P-61 to carry the top turret. SO if the NMUSAF did not do that, there would be NO examples of a P-61 complete with it's turret so that would be extinct. i'd rather see a representative scheme, than something go away completely.
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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager
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