Warbird Information Exchange

Eric,

According to my records 223274943786 is installed on Bu 127888 (Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum). Can you check it again, please?

Cheers,

Brett

What ever happened to the time honored method of screwing around with tail spotters by repainting the tail numbers and swapping them around throughout the unit's planes? The boys at Mildenhall used to have a field day doing it on the EC- and RC-135s. I want to see the fighters start doing it too.

Here's a thought...


Lets not forget that these specific questions may be being asked by someone in the warbird community who may not want to go flaunting his involvement simply because he can! (we all know the type that washed a T-6 once and is sure to tell you all about it like it was his T-6 and everything he says is T-6 related)

This person may want to know component model#'s and Serial Numbers to compare to his needs simply to see what other airframes use the like components, so parts searching for himself may be easier.

This post may ramble oon a bit, but the point is valid

_________________
Kevin Kearney
Vice President
Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation


C-54D "Spirit of Freedom" 43-17228
C-97 "Angel of Deliverance" 52-2718 (painted as YC-97A 45-59595)
C-54E/R5D-4 "Spirit of Freedom" 44-9144 BuNo 90414 (wfu April/2020)
http://www.spiritoffreedom.org

Swaping tail numbers reminds me of a good ole boy out in West Texas, a buddy of LBJ by the name of Billie Sol Estes. You could borrow cheap money from S&Ls as part of a govt. program if you were a farmer. They key was you put up your anhydrous fertilizer tanks as part of the collateral. Each tank was valuable, looked like a 10 foot long propane tank and was mounted on wheels and had its own serial #. The bank boys, being law abiding, at least if an auditor was due, would go out to Billie Sol's many properties to check on these tanks. Billie might show them a 100 or so tanks, then as the sun got well up in the Texas sky, they'd ajourn for lunch at Billie's club where there was old Scotch and young ladies. I don't care much for Scotch, but the ladies in Texas are second to none. Meanwhile Billie's men were moving the same 100 tanks to the next location and spraying on a new serial #. By the time the bank men got back out in the field, sure enough there were another 100 or 200 tanks just like it ought to be. It worked for a long time.

_________________
Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Bill Greenwood wrote:



Bill,
This post is a great example of the the many reasons I consider you a friend, even though most of the crap you post is politically misguided (you know we disagree, but I do respect your opinion, because no matter how wrong by my way of thinking, it is always well thought out ), you come up with this kind of story. Thanks

_________________
Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

The program worked well for Billy too, Bill, right up until they sent him to jail !

Course I was just a little kid back then, but I remembered the gist of the Billy Sol Estes debacle.

Well,

In reference to the original post,

If I owned a warbird/collector car/etc., and a stranger wanted highly detailed information about it, I’d politely decline.

If he persisted, I’d show him the door.

If that didn’t work, I’d show him the back seat of a police car.

IMO, the only one with a legitimate right to “verify the authenticity” of an object, is the owner of that object. While FAA inspectors may also have a need to inspect, that isn’t the case being discussed here.

I sure as heck wouldn’t allow anyone to poke around my aircraft without good reason, and certainly not before their credentials and competence had been verified. There have been 5-6 times in my career that I’ve told a pilot “You’re lucky you’re still alive”, after finding a serious problem caused by someone else’s negligence.

A lot of warbirds may be part of America’s aviation treasure, but they are still someone else’s personal property.

When Eric first presented his concerns starting the thread, I thought, okay someone REALLY in love with these machines. When he told the whole story...I was thinking, this is the most obsessed numbers-cruncher ever....someone shopping stolen parts as 1 member suggested..or someone "cherry picking" to steal them later. Weird! Couldn't have been the Navy building a new case?
Nawww.. that's not possible, right Lex?

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Good thought. I've never seen good manners (asking politely, explaining your reasons) as optional though. At the least we have what's sometimes politely called 'an overly dedicated individual'. A good case of ~ah~ target fixation. A few more manners and they wouldn't have failed in his objective!

I've also learned that any story's better than no story, where normal paranoia and suspicion expect the worst from the absence. F'crissakes, at least make something up!

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com