Warbird Information Exchange

Does anyone know about the B-24J in the Airpark at the 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale AFB? Could it be made to airworthy?
Wouldn't it be cool to see it be restored to airworthy by Yankee Air Museum based at the place it was built and replace the static display with a nice fiberglass replica?
Ahh....dreaming

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci

Probably. Anything is possible with enough money. For some reason the engine cowlings are missing. Those planes are exposed to the elements and have been for years. If I was going to bet money (and I'm not), I would not be surprised to see that B-24 somehow find it's way to the Hazy center someday. The NASM wants one pretty bad and with all of the deals going on between the NASM and the NMUSAF (which has control over the planes on display at Barksdale) this wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

I would rather see the Yankee Air Museum get it. Nothing against the NASM, just that the whole reason that the YAM started was to get a B-24.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I'd like to see the YAM get the Weeks B-24. That plane belongs in the air and is closer to being a flyer. The NASM would do a great job restoring the Barksdale plane...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Yeah, but which one is a ford built version?

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Got me...I'm a B-29 junkie...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

I am not 100% but I thought that the barksdale one was a Ford one.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I've been to see the one at Barksdale a few times and still have the map from the last time I was there. According to it, and others that I have spoken to about it, it is a Ford produced b-24.

It has been open to the elements for a long time and the folks there say it is pretty bad on the inside.

They only have one guy to maintain all of the planes there.

The cowlings (engine covers ?) have been off of it for at least 20 years. The oldest pictures I have of it are from about 1994. When it was the "R" rated "Laden Maiden" and they were wrapped in canvas back then.

Considering with what they started with, it is amazing that it is where it is today.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

The Barksdale bird is indeed a Ford-built Lib. I believe Week's plane is Consolidated-built. Being a native Michigander, I'd love to see the Barksdale plane "come home" to Willow Run and fly alongside Yankee Lady, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Speaking of the Yankee folks and B-24s, they're working on accumulating a fair stash of Liberator bits. Fellow WIXer Todd Hackbarth was showing me around the hangar last weekend, and let me take some pics. apparently, they've got the aft fuselage of a Privateer tanker that burned up on the runway back in the 70s; the cockpit enclosure of a B-24D that crashed in the Aleutians (most of the rest was encorporated into the Hill AFB Lib); the nose section of a B-24A/C-87, and the nose glazing formerly attached to Privateer tanker C-30 (now at Lone Star); as well as misc. turrets and other bits. Todd told me that the landing gear and turrets will be used on the Yankees' Privateer. The fuselage bits (particularly the cockpit) are in very rough shape, but will be used to build up a full-scale B-24 fuselage mock up, possibly in an assembley line diorama. The museum also has acquired the remains of a crude plywood/sheetmetal movie mockup of a B-24 painted as Diamond Lil (seen on a thread here awhile back.)

A few pics...

SN

Those are really interesting pictures, Steve. Thanks for posting them. I've wished for years that someone would save that graveyard of Libs on Anguar Island, near Peleliu, but it just doesn't appear that it is going to happen.

George-

Which Lib graveyard? I've heard stories about this one, but have never seen anyone actually come forth with pics. Seems to be a really good myth.

As far as the Barksdale B-24 goes, that was a Spartan School of Aeronautics training airframe shortly after WWII. It was used by the school for several years, before it was ultimately pushed off into the weeds at the Tulsa International Airport. It was periodically moved around the airport until a man named Marvin Sullenger bought the aircraft for peanuts and traded it to the Air Force for a transport aircraft and four QEC engine setups. He sold those for far more than he paid for the B-24. I've attached below a shot of the B-24 sitting in Tulsa on Spartan's ramp post-war. I've got photos of the move from Tulsa, which happened in the late 1970's, at the office if anyone's interested. (They just slung it under a helicoptor and flew it there!) That aircraft was really, really rough. It is in lousy shape now, but it was far worse when it left Tulsa. I'd love to see it come back to Tulsa, as we built 962 of those here. But it's never gonna happen.

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

The Barksdale B-24 is indeed a Ford-built J. In fact, IIRC, it's the last known surviving Ford-built J-model.

Wade

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I was at the AFB Museum at Barksdale two weeks ago or so...was very dissapointed to see the condition of the B-24 and the B-17...It wasn't that long ago that they were flown in to the airbase...

Gary- the only way that the B-24 was flown into Barksdale was slung underneath a helicoptor, from Tulsa.

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!