Fantasy Of Flight's B-24

[MattP38]

Is there a history of this plane I can read? I've done a bit of searching online and haven't found a whole lot. Thanks, Matt

[Warbirdnerd]

A short and sweet one here
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b24regis ... 44272.html
More here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidat ... _Survivors
and here
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher2/b24_18.html
Googling 44-44272 yields quite a bit.

[MattP38]

Do you know if there are any plans for her to return to the air, or are there airframe issues?

[tulsaboy]

Matt-

On another thread, "Stetz" said this in response to the same question:

"Due to the fact that our collection is rather large [150 aircraft] and our staff is small we have to pick and choose what we are going to fly. We are constantly working on airplanes that we try to fly on a regular basis [ P-51C, TP-40, T-6, Bucker Jungmiester etc] that we have not been able to keep the B-24 flying at this time. The B-29 is dissassembled in storage and would require a huge commitment both man power wise and financially so at this time we have no plans to start the restoration."

That thread can be found at: http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... c&start=45

I'm with you- I would love to see it in the air, but understand their priorities!

kevin

[tinbender2]

Having repaired and maintained aircraft for a good many years, and having personally seen this aircraft recently...

I'd have to say


yes,

there are airframe issues.


Extensive corrosion on the lower inboard wing skins, and steel pieces/fasteners heavily rusted. And that was just a cursory look at the outside. I can only imagine what the inner wing structure is like.

Very sad.



The B-24 is my favorite aircraft, and this example was why I drove many hundreds of miles to visit FoF.

[MattP38]

Ya know, I should go down and volunteer for FoF, or another museum. I have ten years experience at the American Helicopter museum, and would love to get into restoring for flight worthy projects. I'd hate to see something like "Joe" fade away to beyond repair. Heck, even listening to the talk of the CAF B-23 being beyond the point of returning or even making financial sense to invest, and I think "shucks I'd GLADLY help work on one of those beasts, especially were it to return to the air." I realize the ammount of work and money needed, but the end results and the ability to inform and touch the lives of people would be more than well worth it. Wishful thinking, I guess......