Warbird Information Exchange

Back to the original question, aside from what is shown in the pictures, the left wing spar will have to be replaced. It has intergranular corrision, which lead to grounding the airplane back in the early 80's. I have not seen the aircraft in its present state other than the pictures, but it looks pretty bad.
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

Back in 1988, we took the B-23 up to the Portland Rose Festival Air Show. A gentlemen came up to us and said the last time he flew in a B-23 was when they crash-landed at Loon lake, Idaho. Needless to say we had a very enjoyable time talking to the guy. He sent me a article that had been in the paper about the rescue of the crew. He revisited the crash site in 1989 and sent me pics of his "reunion" with his aircraft.

Last year, John Paul mentioned that the Idaho Air Guard had recovered the wreck. I guess they haven't got around to it yet. We had been planning a trip there to see what we could use on N747M, but Mike Bogue got sick and we never did the trip.



Hmmnn...the salvage of 39-052 from Loon Lake may be a bit off schedule...
one way or the other Wayne.. I dug up a websearch of her from 7/13/2006 photo..
www.picturesofcascade.com/large/B-23_Bomber_6192ML.jpg

Thank-you so much for finally answering the question as to the compatibility of the Bolo/ Dragon components match. I suspected that a derivative of a derivative matched from off the shelf parts might not be so clean a conversion as folks chatted-up over the years.

Robbie, it's pretty bad.

Gary

Nope, Airnutz...Not looking for a recovery at Loon. Airframe is too far gone and who wants to deal with the park service. I just want to get pics and measurements of what is left of the interior....

I haven't been for quite some time but externally I remember the B-23 at Castle Air Museum being fairly original, possibly it may be more original on the inside than some, but just an uneducated guess.

Thanks for the Loon Lake photo post, Airnutz. Looks like the Park people have tagged it as an artifact of something. Hope the a/c specs are correct.
Canso42

B-23 at Castle is gutted...

Yeah sure looks gutted.

I remember an Air Classics article about her ferry flight to Castle. They locked the gear down, and it looked like oil was just pouring out of one engine. Still good to see she's preserved, though. The paint on the inside of the nose looks pretty new..I think I remember reading the "bomber" nose was scratchbuilt for the museum restoration.

SN

But she still has her original bomber cockpit...no civilian right seat blocking
entry into the bombardiers station.

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Your welcome...B-23+Loon Lake+ hike(or bike or trail...google is your friend.)

A/C specs?? Am I missing something? Please PM me....

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

In BDK's interior photo looking forward, what is the big white box mounted behind the pilot's seat?
Canso42

Hydraulic tank, I believe.

Correct!!

A restoration on the CAF's B-23 was begun after the B-26 was finished. It was put in the same corner of the big hangar in Harlingen. Hands were thrown up after the FAA shot down some work that had been done on the horizontal surfaces, and no more work was done that I am aware of. The skin had been replaced, overlapping where it joined. The original skin was joggled, and the Feds said that overlapping was not an approved repair, or at least couldn't be done without a manual showing it was approved. Without any documentation that it could be done, the repairs had to be as the original was, an I was told that nobody knew where a big enough tool was to make that long of a joggle.

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Mike