S-43 fuselage

[hang the expense]

AGREED! Let em eat.

[Rocketeer]

Does the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum have any plans the hangar the rare S-43 fuselage?

[HELLDIVERS]

Hi In 1976 I ran the Chevron station in Clam Gulch Alaska living in a mobile home next door was a retired Army Col.Ted Morris. One of the first things I noticed was the S-43 converted into a ocean going cabin cruiser. One of our first conversations was of course the boat,Ted told me the story of how the engineless plane was abandoned along with several others at the Anchorage city dump. He cut the wings and tail group off, loaded the fuselage on a trailer and hualed it to his home in Clam Gulch.Ted worked on his prize several years. He filled the bottom of the hull with cut up chunks of railroad track installed a gas stove,fridge,table and chairs the added weight helped stablize the top heavy fuselage. The first few trips it was determined to be too long and hard to turn,Ted cut several feet off of the fuselage installed a plywood bulkhead and 4 80 hp merc outboards. Ted took it out on the Cook Inlet a few times but soon it was parked next to his mobile home until being picked up by the museum. Ted had the wing struts landing gear tires and wheels with misc other small parts in his shed. Im glad to see it displayed at the museum.Thanks Mike

[Warbird Kid]

Does the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum have any plans the hangar the rare S-43 fuselage?

They do. This is an email I received back in August of 2012.

Mr. Soltis, here is the following about known S-43,s still left. I find that our nose section was an aircraft used by Reeve Aleutian Airways out on the chain. As such, it represents an important part of Alaskan Aviation history, and I do not think we would want to see it leave us. In fact, I now see it as a project to paint what we have in Reeve colors, we now havve the N-number, and I see it as being an important artifact in our collection.

While ultimately I'm glad the nose section even exists nowadays, and that the AAHM is planning on preserving (or at least painting it) it still pains me to not see an authentic piece of a Sikorsky Flying Boat / Amphibian return to it's place of inception here in Stratford. I'm sure many of you can agree. The fact is also that the AAHM has a considerable collection of aircraft, both military and bush / civilian that overwhelmingly tell the tale of Alaska aviation history. While this S-43 nose section adds to that history, I don't think it's a considerable detraction to telling the overall tale. Regardless I applaud the museum for preserving this rare piece and hope to see it restored in the future.