old MAPS aircraft

[JohnH]

Come buy the Museum it is growing.

I can't afford to but maybe Paul Allen will....didn't know it was for sale.

John

[Brian]

Okay,as one of "the Lancaster bunch" let's see if I can shed any light on what's going on down here.
Actually, the main aircraft in question---the P-39---is one I don't know a lot about. It was being housed in our T hangar which is in the process of being razed. I really don't know what became of the hulk. There is also a Bell 47G hulk sitting in there that nobody knows for sure who it belongs to.
The A-26 is indeed property of Tallichet, as it states on our website. Her engines have been run a few times but she's not airworthy yet. The work is going slowly because we just don't have the available manpower to get her back in the air. When that finally happens, Mr T will have a fight on his hands if he plans to move it somewhere else
When I joined the squadron four years ago there were plans to build a larger hangar to house the Memphis Belle. Unfortunately,as with MAPS, the plan fell through.
The B-25 that USED to be shown on the MAPS site as being one of their birds has been sitting on our ramp at the Fairfield County Airport for the past two years. There had been talk of it being removed at least twice so but so far that has not happened.
And, since the C-45 was mentioned----it also is coming along slowly. The current plan is to restore it to static condition.

[Nathan]

I wrote the MAPS museum once because I hadn't heard any news on their P-40 in quit some time. They said they had a problem with it and was going to throw it away!!!!! I thought that this was the dumbest thing I ever heard!!! In the pics it looked like it was on its way to flying very soon. To have them telling me that they were going to "throw" it away....I was a little upset. So I wrote them back saying if you don't want it, I'll take it. Never got a reply back!! Whats the story on this???

Air Heritage last I knew had a A-20 and P-39, but there webpage has been off for quit some time. I was thinking that maybe they went out of buisness.

-Nathan

[oscardeuce]

The way I heard it the P-40 went to europe to be reverse engineered into a series of new aircraft. We did not throw it away it was crated off and shipped out to hopefully become more new P-40's.

[O.P.]

The last time I was at MAPS in 2002 they definitely had a P-39 sitting on the loading dock outside (but under cover). The fuselage was apparently from Snooks 2nd (the serial number was visible on the paintwork), but but the Beaver Falls group was supposedly the one which officially had Snooks 2nd. I imagine that there are parts from many planes all mixed up in the bag. They did have two SBD's at the time, but is sounds like one of them has moved on. Whatever happened to that bequest they received which was supposed to include a Brewster buffalo... guess that was all hot air (not on MAPS part, as the bequest was real... just that it must have been for aircraft which either never materialized/existed). Anyone know more?

Cheers,
Richard

SBD's? I know this is off topic, but tell me more please.

On topic, I asked the question about the P-39's here awhile back. I was trying to look up the history of the P-39 that was for sale then at Courtesy. Some things I found out,,

Maps? I think it was them, got a P-39, started restoration, and it turned out to be twisted so they stopped work on it, got another hull, and started work on it instead. I think thats the one pictured above. The twisted one went somewhere else. I know it's not much, but a search through previous topics will answer a lot more.

Back to the SBD's. Two, and they still have one? Where did the other one go?

[AirJimL2]

The former MAPS A-24/SBD s/n 42-54654 and P-40N (unknown ID) are now in storage with the Pima Air Museum. I saw them there in March. Nothing was thrown away. (Tom you must have got some bad info on the Europe thing.)

MAPS still has an unknown ID A-24 under restoration. It is shown in the registry as 42-54654. The real 42-54654 pic is shown under 42-54593.

The real interesting question is what happened to the third SBD at MAPS. It was SBD-4 BuNo. 10715. It was at MAPS in the very early days and left for Calif. Anyone know who has it now?

Jim

P.S.: OP the P-39 story was about Air Heritage. MAPS got possession of the two extra P-39s from Air Heritage once they decided to concentrate on the good airframe. To the best of my knowledge no work was done on the P-39s at MAPS and they are still at the Museum in storage.

[TimAPNY]

Yanks and San Dog Air Museum both have -4s. I'd have to check the numbers. But those two come to mind.

EDIT:
Nope those aren’t the a/c.

[Nathan]

Hi tim and all,

How much were some of these P-39 going for? I remember seeing a few hulks that just envolved the cockpit area. How much are/were they asking for??

-nate