The F-15A was a cool tanker, as a Tanker enthusiast I always dug the plane. She was tanked after the P-61, starting in 1964/65 by Cal NAt in Grass Valley, and after a return from Mexico as a photomapper. All her Turbo-supercharging was removed I believe and she was called "The Pregnant Widow". Tanker E35 crashed on an aborted (no flaps) takeoff on a hot load during 1968 at Hollister, CA and was past of an AAHS article in the (1980's)? that was pretty complete, even showing pictures of what remained after the post crackup fire. The problem with the planes is a lot of the Reporter was exotic, materials and otherwise, and a repair was out of the question. She was scrapped and her spares stored. They went to the MAAM for the P-61 project. Incidentally Ralph M Ponte who was flying that day did a lot of warbird stuff and owned an F7F among other things. Photo from a prior WIX thread courtesy of AviationArk... ANd sharp eyed folks may note there were at least three different propeller combinations tried on this plane as a tanker. The ones in the photo are the last ones and were on during the crash. Its possible that the plane was not the hot performer in the low and slow at high density altitudes environment of California firefighting, and these indicate attempts at making the airplane a safer platform that never panned out. These may have been cut down DC-7 blades perhaps and propeller choice may have been a contributing factor to the crash...
The P-61B crashing on a fire near Porterville was a historic P-61B-1 42-34919 and was flown by an ex 421st NFS pilot named Bob Savaria who probably advocated and bought the plane for the Boise company Ranchers Inc. She was a longtime civilian airplane who did not survive being tanked long, crashing Aug 23, 1963 on her fifth firefighting call out. It seems the P-61 did not like hot or high conditions....
Wether a P-61 or a TBD or an F-15A is worth getting is really just an armchair arguement amongst those who can't do much about any of it. There are no TBD's that can be recovered, as the USN has prevented that from happening, and thus sacrificed the remaining ones on the planet to corrosive oblivion. The F-15A is as far as I know not existing anywhere, and a crashed one would be relatively worthless, as using the airframe bits as the basis for a P-61B reconstruction would always be known as such. However, if a complete one was quietly recovered...that would help. AFAIK, there are no crashed F-15 Reporters noted worldwide. They were all scrapped.
As for cost, I remember looking at the P-61 in China as an armchair estimation project with a friend and we tried to figure out the costs and timeframe. First, the numbers on some of what is happening today are very different than the year 2000 number quoted before. "6 to 8 Million" is way off. Those are Corsair numbers today, and Corsairs could be more than that if they are complete reconstructions, which are what remains in the marketplace. A P-38 can easily be a $10-$12M dollar restoration. Recovery is extra. A P-61 might cost close to (In the China case) $12-$18 M and take 15++ years. I am nearly 50 years old, and most collectors are older. Would we want to spend that much to have a flyable P-61 in 2032 or 2035? Will there be 100LL avgas or legislation outlawing high performance ex military aircraft? User fees on airspace? Will there be airshows or LHFE rides? Will 100LL be $26.88 a gallon and require carbon offset credits to use? This should be a consideration. And 15 years would be twice as fast as the one under restoration now...
Further is that where your organization want to go? If you choose a P-61 (China) project, it takes all the resources a shop and or several shops for 15 years if its a full court press on the project. AND they have to sell it to you! They have gotten offers and refused them all. And while this is happening really significant planes with lots of available parts get scrapped every day. Not as "special" but historic and significant are the P2V-7/OP-2E projects going for a song right now. Why not save a Neptune, buy a ton of parts and protect the plane for a generation or two? Further, are their more valuable planes that are simpler and more significant? Yes, and that's the rub. Its cool to think about having the only. But it would sacrifice other projects and truthfully this is a distraction from reality. It simply isn't really a valid argument right now.
There are no available projects in the known world. And that is that.
AS for Paul Allen and Rod Lewis (and other Billionaires) and the planes they collect and spend on, they are proving to be very very smart in their choices for preservation and the monies they invest. They have aircraft that are special and once completed are unduplicatable at that price. Their planes are as correct as can be done, and are completely restored. The Flying Heritage B-25 is a completely restored and significant WWII aircraft. There are cheaper ones. But they are repaints or partial restorations that aren't really "comps" in comparison with a no questions no stories B-25.. The days of simple millionaires going after planes in the hills may be behind us...
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