Wildcat at Palwaukee Airport in '60's?

[planeoldsteve]

HENCE the clipped wing tip's.
I thought that it was an P-47N?

Steve

[Sasquatch]

Earl's P-47 was actually a modifed D model, one of three made into YP-47M-RE prototypes. Both Bill Odom and Earl Reinert had plans to race the plane in the '47 and '48 Bendix Races respectively (in Earl's case, with Jane Page at the controls), but both times it didn't happen. Here's the registry info on this particular Thunderbolt:

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p47registry/p47-4227385.html

And here's a pretty good synopsis (pages 2 and 3) on the racing plans and the plane's history as a warbird:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3901/is_200203/ai_n9073825/pg_1

I recall being amazed at how huge the plane always seemed to me at the Victory Air Museum .

--Tom

[Django]

Last time I was up there, they had a Mustang and a P-47 on poles and seems like they had a P-38 in back. Are any of them still there?

[oscardeuce]

It was one of the first planes sold by Earl and I don't think it went for more than 5K.

I was down at the old Victory Air Museum in November the house and hanger are still there but all around the old strip are new homes being built and the property is for sale.

I'm waiting for the buffalo to be found with all the digging you never know maybe Earl sitting right on top of it all along

Steve

[Chris Brame]

Hi Steve, does Roger Polidori still own the property? (Is he still around?) Earl did a little better selling the P-47 - heard he got 50K for it...

I don't know if Roger is still living in the house.
It looks like the old airstrip might be all in one yet but there's trac housing all around it and all but the main hanger is gone.
kinda sad when you think about the high speed flyovers, stories and tall tales that came from that hanger. When you look at what's flying today Polidori and the Reinert's saved a bunch of them. Maybe we need to start a data base (like Mike's on Walter's place) and find the old collectors planes