Seeking info on early warbird collector: Earl Reinert

[bdk]

I think that Rudy Frasca ended up with parts from one of them for his bubble top restoration, and one (maybe the same one) ended up in Florida with Don Knapp?

[T J Johansen]

The two Spitfires always associated with Matt and Lowe are RM694 and RM927. I guess at best they just had fuselages and some wing parts off other aircraft? Anyone have any current info on these birds? They seem to have fallen off the radar.

Jim

I seem to remember both of these Spits going to former F1 race car driver Vern Schuppan. There were some talk that they have arrived back in the UK recently (or within the last 4-5 years)!

T J

[Chris Brame]

Sorry to bump this up, but I did some more research and have a correction:

AT-11 wreck N81Y painted as Japanese transport, ex John Ortseifen? Its nose glass was metaled over. Earl told me that it got wrecked at Chicagoland Airport when the pilot tried to take off overloaded on a 90-degree day with no wind.

I looked up AT-11 accidents on the NTSB records and found this one at Midway Airport in 1965:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=75073&key=0

which sounds like the incident Earl mentioned to me. The registration was N107RS, c/n 3290, which would make the serial 42-36910. Where did I get N81Y? Beats me. Part of the N-number on the wing was visible under the "Japanese" camo, and I wrote down 87 or 81 at the time, and didn't check further. Must have been the "07".

Sorry for the mistake! (I know, research, research, research... )

This poor plane had a hard life - it also got banged up at Palwaukee earlier that year:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=77226&key=0

Do any of you Beech fans have a photo of N107RS?

[Jake Fendermen]

A good updated article on Earl Rienert can be found in the July/August 2005 issue of Warbirds International. It begins on page 44.
Jake Fendermens the name, flyings the game.

[Danno]

Guys...
I'm brand-new to this forum, so forgive my intrusion!...However, I also knew Earl pretty well, and bought many parts from him while attempting to "part-together" a P-47 in my hanger here in OKC. I still own several P-43 parts, and numerous rare P-47 parts, including parts from the XP-47H, YP-47M, a tailwheel tire and seat belts from one of his HA-1112s, at least one Buffalo instrument , some F-82 parts, and I even own the wooden "Ohka Pilot" that Earl used to sit inside his Japanese bomb(yes, that's the one the Yanks museum recently restored). The rest of my hanger-full of Thunderbolt parts were sold to a man in Nevada after I became highly frustrated with the CAF, when they asked
for a bid for their P-47N fuselage in Hobbs, N.M....I gave them one...then they sold it to the guy who bought MY parts for less than what I offered them!! What a bunch of jerks!
Anyway, check my new posting about the P-43 stuff, as it might explain more about Earl and my association with him. He had also promised me the two tires and wheels from his P-43, but he died before he could transfer them, and some old friend of his now refuses to part with them. Oh well! He also owned a P-43 engine mount and dishpan, which I have photos of, but I have no idea what happened to that.
Any questions, please ask!

Dan S., OKC

[Chris Brame]

Hi Danno and a warm welcome to WIX! When were you at the VAM? I used to hang around there from '79 until late '81 when I moved to California. The guy who got the P-43 gear - not to name names, but was it the guy who also had a B-25 nose in his den? Did you get any of Earl's photo archives? And what happened to his PBY nose turret, or the F7U Cutlass cockpit? Let's hear some more Earl stories!

[Danno]

Chris...I never met Earl until the early to mid-90's, and I never saw either his photo archives, or the PBY or F7U stuff! Rats!
Earl was amazing in his encyclopedic knowledge of what P-47 models had interchangeable parts, and he at one time owned most of them!
I saw his former A-26, now owned by Kermit Weeks, a couple of years ago, still disassembled...and I also saw his former Ohka at the Yanks
Museum, when Charlie Nichols himself showed me around. Charlie is the nicest guy in the world, and has also had Earls' former YP-47M beautifully restored, although it has never flown. Interestingly, Earl had stored that
YP-47M down here in Oklahoma for several years, along with several other P-47 parts (mainly control sticks!) at Cimarron Airport, now named "Page Airport for Earls' good friend Clarence Page.
That same YP-47 was once owned by famous record-setting pilot
Bill Odom, who later died while flying the world's fastest Mustang,
"Beguine". Earl DID often tell me about his association with Odom, and was apparently there when he died...and said he thinks Odom was killed when a small thermos of iced tea they had installed on the upper part of the Mustang's windshield broke loose, and hit Odom in the head. That was Earls' story, at least!
The YP-47 was going to be raced by Jane Page, but it developed a large fuel leak, and it had to withdraw. Earl picked up ownership not long after that.
Yes, we'll all miss Earl. He was a gem...and a true early warbird collector. If it weren't for Earl and his friends, we wouldn't have many of the aircraft we all enjoy today.

Dan S.

[Danno]

I bought that P-47 belly panel painted yellow, for a P-47 project I was "parting together": in my hanger here in OKC. It was painted yellow
because a few Thunderbolts were converted to Search and Rescue aircraft, and carried dinghies instead of a drop tank on the belly rack. I
believe the bottom of all those P-47s were yellow and black.
That belly panel, as well as most (but not all!) of the P-47 stuff I had gathered from around the world went to a man who bought my project and took it all to Nevada.
I still have some parts from the XP-47H, YP-47M, Me-262 (one of the Jumo 004s that Earl owned), F-82, P-43, PB4Y, etc. that I bought from him!

Dan S., OKC

[Cutlass]

I purchased the F7U-3 cockpit (BuNo 129622) in 1983, if I remember correctly

[Lon Moer]

Not my pic's.
Earl Reinert Victory Air Museum, Mundelein, IL,

[hurricane_yank]

Not my pic's.
Earl Reinert Victory Air Museum, Mundelein, IL,

In that first picture you will see the remains the HS-129.