PB4Y firebombers

[Pat Carry]

What happened with the PB4Y firebombers that Hawkins and Powers had in their inventory? Are they still 4 sale?

[Aircraft Mech Paul]

Hi Pat,

As far as I know they are still on the block for sale. The old girls have sure seen their time and done their duty well. If an enterprizing museum were to adopt one of them it would make for an interesting restoration. I am pretty sure that the USN Museum in Pensacola got one of them quite some time back, prior to the firebomber conversion. I had seen it out on the "restoration" ramp, prior to the Hurricanes in recent history. It looked fairly complete. Including the nose turrent installation.

As a side note, the Yankee Air Museum has one and I think it also was an old Hawkins and Powers bird. From the outside it looks fairly complete, but corrosion is taking it's inevitable toll on the fuselage exterior in places. Based on just my own currsory examination it would look to be a pretty good candidate to restore to flight worthy status, but it would take quite a bit of work.

And additionally, I do know that the folks who run the Lone Star Air Museum are closing in on completing their PB4Y restoration, though I am not exactly sure of HOW close they are. From the photo's I had seen, some time ago, they looked to be doing up to their high quality standards for the work on it. And all of their aircraft are first rate restorations.

Just my two cents and thoughts.........

Paul

[JohnH]

I think the Yankee airplane had some damage that limited it to static only, hopefully Todd will come on here and tell the story.

John

[Dan K]

Hmm...

As far as BuNo 66261 goes (NMNA), the Warbird Registry indicates that it remained unconverted. I don't know if she ever received tanks, but she did receive (and still bears the results of) several "typical" tanker mods--such as a one-piece windshield and R-2600's. As of last month she was still missing her rudder and one radial--both having been removed by Ivan in '04. My guess is she'll remain that way as long as they've got other big projects in the shop right now.

Since Pat's original post dealt with H&P, I just wanted to clarify that 59819 was never operated by them. T&G was the source. Lone Star certainly is a nice place for any old bird to be taken care of, though!

[bearfan1]

These are a few shots of the PB4Y Privateer that the Yankee Air Museum aquired several years ago (1989 ?) shortly after it's arrival.

bf1

[RickH]

The NMNA Privateer did have some mods carried out as mentioned but she was parked and left derelict for some time. A swap was engineered and she was made ferriable. If I remember correctly she was painted Navy blue and flew from Greybull to Pensacola, GEAR DOWN the whole way ! As a side note, she lost her engine because instead of following the manual for heavy weather tiedown some genius threw a chain around the prop and the mount failed ? That let her swing around and damage the tail.

[Todd Hackbarth]

A fairly detailed history of the YAF's PB4Y-2 can be found at

http://www.ais.org/~schnars/aero/yaf-list.htm

"Aug 8, 1975, while on a flight from fire bombing in Alaska to Greybull,
Wyoming with a total of 1475 hours of flight time, flying on one engine due to running out of fuel, a landing was attempted at the airport in Port Hardy British Colombia, Canada. The aircraft landed very hard, breaking the left landing gear off, damaging the nose wheel, left wing tip and flap. The aircraft then continued on through a chain link fence into a salt water bay. The pilot and copilot escaped and swam to shore.
On August 11 the aircraft was pulled ashore by a bulldozer and stored on airport property next to a hangar. $142,500.00 was received by H&P as an insurance settlement for the aircraft. The aircraft was then sold, by the insurance company, to Airplane Supply Centre of Vancouver B.C. for $2,600.00 who, in turn, sold it to the Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation in Richmond B.C.
By 1981, the C.M.F.T. was unable to transport the aircraft to Richmond and the aircraft stayed at Port Hardy for six years where it was heavily vandalized. Under pressure, from the airport, to move the aircraft, the C.M.F.T. sold it to a concern from Michigan who planned to restore it. In order to move it, the aircraft was cut, with a diamond saw, from top to
bottom ahead of and behind the wings and outboard of the wing attachment joints. The vertical and horizontal tail surfaces were removed properly. The engines were removed but the blade tips were cut off to fit the flat bed trailer to keep the width under the maximum allowable."

See also http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b24regis ... 59876.html

For my complete history of this aircraft along with photos taken after the crash landing, see the July/August 1993 issue of Air Progress Warbirds International.

The aircraft suffered extensive damage when it crash landed and ran off the airport, through a fence and into the ocean. At high tide, the only part of the aircraft not submerged in salt water was the vertical fin. After three days, it was pulled ashore by a bulldozer and dragged back to the airport, suffering further damage. It was vandalized for almost 6 years while it lay abandoned. As described above, it was crudely sawed apart and then trucked to Michigan.

Could this aircraft be restored to flying condition? I suppose, but it would require an extremely expensive and extensive restoration. The amount of money spent would easily surpass the monetary value of the aircraft when finished. The four H & P Privateers and even the one at Pensacola would be much more viable candidates to restore to airworthy status.

Todd Hackbarth

[bearfan1]

Very nice Todd, Thanks !!

bf1