South of the Border Mitchells

[mustanglover]

Ryan, you are the man to go about it. San Antone would be the perfect HQ for operation Bird Flap. Get to it and don't let us see you until you have at least three of them sitting on the runway in Boulder.

There was a VERY shady guy in town that used to be at Stinson (99th St. Inc.) who had the B-25 that is now Pacific Prowler. I had gone there to take detail shots of the B-25 and found myself learning some interesting things about south-of-the-border recovery operations involving stolen aircraft, insurance, and the corrupt Mexican government. They claimed that there were B-25s to be had if one had the money. Seemed pretty confident they could get me one if I could come up with enough $$$.

Name is John Lister.

Oh, and if I could come up with three they wouldn't be going to Boulder. I'd probably get them to Aero Trader somehow and have them restore the B-25B for me and we'd put it on the circuit as a sister ship to the Doolittle Raiders (It's three serials off from Doolittle's bird).

Ryan

John is still alive and well in Hondo, TX. See him quite a bit.

[mustanglover]

John Lister used to have a hangar at Stinson, full of interesting stuff.

I met him once, and he was of course, leery of letting me take photos, so I did not.

But he told me an interesting story about a Howard DGA that he had found in what used to be an airport in Mexico, and that he managed to bring back to the USA.

Then again, I met a guy at Boerne Stage, who told me an horror story about the T-28s that he had already bought in Mexico, just to find out when the airplanes arrived in Texas, that he had been cheated and given burned or damaged airframes. I regret that I don't remember this gentleman's name, but his story rang true, when corroborated with other similar stories that I have heard through the years.

It probably has a lot to do, with the people you know down there...

Saludos,


Tulio

You outa see his ranch hangar and buildings in Hondo. Amazing collection of "stuff".

[RyanShort1]

Yes indeed. The hangar was VERY interesting. He may indeed be on the level, but I wasn't sure it was anything I really needed to be involved in. They did tell some very interesting stories.

Ryan

[PinecastleAAF]

New story out today about how popular bulletproof clothes are in Mexico City

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/06/ ... mexico.php

They use those B-25's for gringo bait.