Warbird Information Exchange

After posting a image on the P61 thread, I thought everyone might like to see some of NASM's rather unique and rare aircraft. The pics were taken 1998.

Warren

Nice! They have enough work to do there to last 100 years! I wonder if Garber will ever be open for public tours again.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Hi,

I had the opportunity to go to the Silver Hill facility several years ago while they were restoring the Enola Gay and the Japanese Seiran. What a fantastic collection they have ! And the workmanship that goes into their restorations is second to none.

That brings me to a question. I had heard that when they were planning to build the new facility at Dulles, I was told that most, if not all of the aircraft were, at least at the time I was told, going to be brought over to the new Dulles facility and put together as ststic disply aircraft, in the condition they were in until the respective plane's slot for restoration was determined, and then they were going to be restored on site in a shop at the Dulles facility. Does anyone know if this is still the case ??

Paul

Paul, I'm not sure about displaying them in "as is" condition but I can tell you that construction of the restoration buidling at Dulles is many years off and is dependant on raising the necessary funds. The last figure I saw was something like $84 million dollars needed to complete the facility.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Pat,

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that they were building the Dulles facility in phases. Still, the idea of even placing the aircraft on display "as is" is a very intriguing prospect. They have so many examples, many of which are finished and would be wonderful additions to the already displayed aircraft in the new facility. Primarily of interest to me of course would be the DO-335. If I recall correctly, this plane was restored by Dornier in exchange for the NASM's consent to send the plane back to Germany for a time frame and to have it displayed at a museum there. I understand that that aircraft is very large and none of the photo's I have ever seen of the type do it justice for it's size and detail.

Thanks again for the info.

Paul

How was the Horten holding up when you saw it ? Is the plywood starting to delaminate ?

Paul

I have it on good authority that the Do-335 will be transferred later this year. It is a big aircraft, I saw it on display in Munich back in 1984.

Dave

totally fabulous to be lucky enough to have access to the facility. for historical perspective i think it's pretty cool to see them in unrestored condition too, but prefer restored. regards, tom

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Dave,

OUTSTANDING news about the DO-335 ! That is one unique aircraft I would dearly love to see. Thanks for the info.

As a bit of a side note, when I was at Silver Hill, they were only allowing certain storage buildings open to the "public". And consequently, there was so much there even to see, that one could stay busy photographing what was availible. My father is a retired A&P mechanic and I have held the same certification for my career. I had to practically drag my father to visit Silver Hill. Once he got there he found out that there was a plane in storage that has his name in the logbooks for work when the aircraft was operable. He quickly changed his tune when he found out that info from one of the Docents. When my Dad retired he wanted to distance himself far away from aircraft, but he was really jazzed up when one his planes was there as was I happy for him.

Paul

From what some of my friends who work at NASM told me, they will move all of the restoration facilities out to UHC when the new wing is built. They still need to raise a lot of money for this to happen, however, from what I understand, the builder is going to work on the wing in stages, as money becomes available, rather than having to wait until everything is fully financed. This was good news to me, because it should mean the facility is completed faster.

Cheers,
Richard