Looks Like Dec 7 is to be her first flight...
Found it here:
http://www.tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGBFX4K142E.html
KISSIMMEE - The warbird bug bit Tom Reilly the first time he climbed into the cockpit of one.
A few months later, he bought his first - a derelict B- 25 Mitchell.
``I thought it would be a neat airplane to toy with,'' the 62- year-old Philadelphia native says.
``I bought it for $700 or $800 in storage costs, worked on it for two years and sold it in flyable condition for $17,500. I thought I was getting rich.''
What he was getting was hooked.
In the 3 1/2 decades since that first step, Reilly has restored 31 vintage warplanes, including nearly a dozen B-25s.
``Numbers 32 and 33 are being worked on now,'' he says.
A B-17 bomber dubbed Liberty Belle is one of the latter. It was used for various purposes for years after the war, but was left to decompose in a Connecticut field after a tornado ravaged it in 1979.
``She was built at the end of World War II and never saw combat,'' Reilly says.
``She's very heavily modified. [A previous owner] cut the cockpit and mounted a fifth engine in the nose for [flight] tests.''
B-17s usually have four 1,200-horsepower engines capable of flying them at 200 miles per hour.
``It and the B-24 were the mainstays of [the war in] Europe. There were 13,000 built and 5,000 or 6,000 were shot down. There are 26 known to exist now and 13 that fly. This will be the 14th.''
He hopes to fly it Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day.
To date, ``we've put 80,000 hours into'' the bomber, which he sold to Boeing, then resold it for the aircraft maker.
``Today, it's worth $4 million.''
On The Sidelines
Reilly once restored and sold old homes.
He made the switch to warbirds in the 1960s.
Some jobs are smaller than others, but none are a cake walk.
Restorations can take years because Reilly and his crew have to make most of the parts.
There also are occasional interruptions, such as this year's storm season.
``The hurricanes weren't very kind to us,'' Reilly says. ``Charley, Frances and Jeanne all came within three miles of us. The eye of Charley came right over us. A tornado took us out.''
While his restoration business is back on course, his Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum remains closed with a projected reopening on Dec. 7. Museum admission ($9 adults, $8 seniors and children 8 to 12) gives you a look at exhibits ranging from wood propellers and parachutes to antique radios and other memories of 1930s through 1960s aviation.
It also includes tours of the restoration area and about 40 parked exhibits, including a 1965 Mig 21 MF, 1966 A-7 LTV Corsair II and 1944 North American B-25J.
A Lengthy Resume
Maryland resident Larry Kelley bought his B-25 based on Reilly's reputation.
``I bought it only because I had Tom to maintain it,'' Kelley says, adding Reilly also restored it in the mid-1980s.
``He's the best I've ever known. He knows B-25s better than anyone.''
John Ware of Georgia is another admirer, though not yet a buyer, of Reilly's work.
``Tom was one of the first ones to get involved in warbirds, at a time when they were not in vogue,'' Ware says.
Reilly says he's never had enough money to buy an air- worthy warbird.
``Just derelicts and then I spend years restoring them,'' he says.
``Warbirds reflect a time in the 1940s when our way of life was being challenged by the Axis powers.''
Unlike more recent wars in Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf, ``if we didn't win we were going to be speaking German or Japanese. Warbirds represent our country at a time when there was no question who won the war.
``And we have them today to fly and show them and not let people forget.''
You can learn more on the Internet at
You can learn more on the Internet at
www.warbirdmuseum .com. .com.Reporter Jim Tunstall can be reached at (352
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When you say the strut collapsed you don't mean the left main gear collapsed do you? That doesn't make sense from the context of your posting since it looks like the taxi run was carried out afterwards. What exactly is the damage? Is the "strut" collapse related to the #1 engine performance.
Not a very nice thing to write without a link to an album or something.