Warbird Information Exchange

These two longtime residents of New Smyrna Florida are on the way out. Hopefully they will become artificial reef material, and not simply sent to the scrapper....Unfortunately its a bit late. The partial scrapping of N16ZE is evidence of their future unless a reef project "preserves" them for a while longer. Corrosion is the winner here.

N16ZE was USCG 2124 and for a while was owned by the Conroy Company prior to that I believe she was USAF 52-124 and was delivered to the USCG 12.28.53, and became a trainer at USCG Elizabeth City March 1969. She is G-351


N16CA is the Conroy Albatross ex USAF 51-004 amd has RR Dart powerplants. Probably a veteran of both Korea and Vietnam she is G-77.








Staring into the setting sun for a few more days...what has this old warhorse seen?

That is terrible,
A friend of ours has a nice desk made out of the cockpit of an Albatross.
Complete with W/S and antenna mast.

Cant someone float one out behind their hotel, or make it into a tiki bar or something?

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"Hindsight is usually 20% off!"

That is sad.
The RR powered one is very interesting. I did not know such an aircraft existed. I wonder what the performance figures were.

Probably a bit sarcastic: but they need to have a close supervision of the transport crew, imagine the mistake: "noooo, they drop the B-25 on the ocean"

More seriously, it's sade, one of them looks to be in not bad shape on the pictures

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Sorry for my bad English:-(

I was recently inquiring about the current status of the Conroy Dart-powered Albatross elsewhere (on the Grumman Albatross Reference File page of the SeaWings Flying Boat Forum hosted in the UK) and Mr. Widgeon (also known here on WIX) sent me the following link to a photo of N16CA taken last April:

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/467431.html

THAT is really sad! What was the problem (other than just "corrosion")? Why didn't they maintain it and keep it airworthy? Does anyone know the real story with Conroy and whoever its principals were?

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“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Ask if it's possible to salvage the data plates from them, at least it'll be a small piece of history preserved

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Hi Bill! Speak of the devil, I just sent you a personal e-mail message about an unrelated subject....( alittle while ago, that is.)

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Thats a pretty big problem. The plane is 90' by 70' by 25' so it wont go inside for under $3000.00 a month. Airworthy costs would be 20K per year assuming mechanics and shops didn't find anything wrong, and a full time mechanic/co-pilot would be nice. Also the plane is experimental, and could not be used for hire. Fuel burn on the piston wouldn't be too bad per hour, but the tanks hold 675 internal and 210 in the floats. Avgas being a deal at $4.00 a gallon means $2,700.00 a fillup for internals, and thats good for three to four hours. Maintenence costs per hour would equal that for a while, until she finds her groove. You need several voluntters who help out every few weeks to tackle corrosion and cleaning. Stay away from salt water. Ect..

The planes were in Florida. That is a pretty bad place to put anything made of dissimilar metals, wood, stone or ice. The mold growing on the sides pretty much destroyed the planes by holding moisture on the thing for years. I had hoped an artificial reef could take them, but apparently it was too late. Corrosion is forever, and on a big plane, it is the final word. There are plenty of good ones in the deserts of AZ/Nevada that would cost less to finish...

And the later, long wing airplanes are airframe hour limited on the spars aren't they?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

man it drives me crazy to see one of my fav,s going to the grave how can peop[le afford not to maintain something like this?

My thoughts exactly! Sad to see these birds like this...

-Derek

I'd figure someone would at least want to salvage those unique engines and nacelles before it all goes away. Seems like it would be a nifty setup to store away somewhere at least.

The Albatross is just one of those rare designs that's beautiful from every angle. Certainly the most attractive of the Grumman amphibians IMO. I imagine the ones that survive will appreciate nicely in the decades to come. Has anyone run a tally on roughly how many viable Albatrosses are still floating around?

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Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Of course they have - how could something so significant be overlooked? Check out Ray Wolfe's site http://www.hu-16.com

It includes a roster of current civilian Albatross airframes and their status. In addition, Ray and Chuck Kimes also operate SeaPlane Operations LLC http://www.seaplaneops.com/ and do crew training and aircraft management for big seaplanes like the Albatross.

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"