Madras Airport getting crowded

[Larry Kraus]

Just about all of the museum airplanes are now inside the hangar at Madras.The SP-2H is still out on the flightline with the DC-7s,but even the PBY and the DC-3 are now inside.The Duck has arrived and I took some pictures.The door to this hangar bay was partially open,but the light wasn't the greatest:
















The rest of the hangar doors were closed and the lights were off,but I took some shots of the hangar bays the best that I could under the circumstances:



















Then there's this guy:









The P-2 is still exiled out with the DC-7s:



The latest news with Erickson Aero Tanker is that two of the MD-87s will go on contract with the U.S. Forest Service next week.Since the Fed contract don't have home bases,nobody yet knows where the airplanes will go.

[JohnB]

Hopefully when the time comes to retire the DC-6/7s one will be kept airworthy...and since Mr. Ericson obviously has an eye for history, the others will be flown to other museums for posterity.

[C VEICH]

Then there's this guy:

That one might be a girl Larry!

[Larry Kraus]

I thought about the pink nose and wingtips looking a bit feminine,but who knows these days?

The door was open to the bay in the museum hangar containing the Duck,so I shot a picture from the front,which was the only missing angle from the other day:




Butler Aircraft's DC-7BF,which was unflyable due to corrosion in the wingspars,served as our engine test stand in Redmond for a number of years.It was sold to Erickson as part of the sale of Butler's tanker business,but was too large to move the 35 road miles to Madras.The Redmond Airport manager gave Erickson notice to move the BF off of the airport,so it was scrapped.Butler did the same several years ago with our DC-6 Tanker 68 and DC-7 Tanker 67 for pretty much the same reason.Nothing was saved from either T68 or T67,even though we pleaded with management to save the cockpit areas.

At least Erickson saved that much of the Freighter (DC-7BF).Here are some shots of what's left in the secure storage area in Madras today:









Here are some pictures of The Freighter from happier times at Redmond in April 2008:









These are the last interior shots that I have from the Freighter/Test Stand from about the same time:




















Here are a couple of shots from the cargo bay looking forward toward the cockpit.You can see the forward cargo door and the bulkhead withe the tie-down spider that's still attached to the bulkhead in the last picture of the sawed off remains in Madras:





Here's the Dataplate.The last registration number was N756Z: