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From Swamp Bomber to Super Rabbit

Sun May 14, 2006 9:58 pm

Through the Harry Doan thread I've recieved a few requests for pictures of the swamp bomber. So here are a few. I also have a video of the crash from Paul Stekewitz (sp) who wrenches for Kermit Weeks. But, I just can't figure out what box it's in at the present.
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Damage to the bombbay area. The entire underside of the airplane had to be reskinned
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Coming out of the swamp. No gators or water mossicans were harmed during this evolution.
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Back at the Doan hanger
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How she looked when we got her. She looked better in the swamp!
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The finished product. Lots of rewarding work!
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Nov 1959 CFB Moosejaw, Saskatoon
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Over Arlington, WA from Crash Williams's T-28B

Sun May 14, 2006 10:32 pm

Along with some friends, we used to visit Harry's place a lot after the TICO Shows. My favorite story about Harry was after the crash landing in the swamp, he got a permit to tow the B-25, minus the wings, up I-95 to TICO Airport, which was only a few miles. Harry convienently "missed" the highway exit to the TICO Airport and instead, towed it about 44 miles up to New Smyrna!

On the way North on I-95, a State Trooper pulled them over. It seems the B-25 was taking up two lanes of travel and slowing traffic down. Luckily, Harry knew the Trooper. Not wanting Harry to get in a lot of hot water, the trooper simply said, "I don't want to see it, but do you have a permit to move this thing on the highway?" Harry said he did, and the Trooper left.

Harry didn't get ticketed and the Trooper didn't have to fill out a mound of paperwork!
I miss Harry.
Blue skies,
Jerry

??

Mon May 15, 2006 12:02 am

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Heading up the interstate...............

Mon May 15, 2006 2:18 am

Harry Doan had one B-25 that had a corrosion problem in the outer wing sections. Do you recall which one it was?

The reason I ask is because he got hold of some outer wing sections, along with a lot of other parts, from a guy in Panama City. He supposedly traded some helcopter parts for the whole lot, which included a couple of engines, bomb bay doors, overhauled vertical stablizers, rudders, elevators and horizontal stablizer, a NOS tail gunner's greenhouse, a couple of nose sections, lots of cowling and some NOS waist windows.

All of this stuff was stolen from me by the guy in Panama City, after we had made arrangements to store everything on some land he was trying to build a helicopter overhaul shop.

Doan knew that the parts weren't the other guy's to trade, but he didn't care, and I lost out on thousands of dollars worth of parts.

All of the parts were for mine and my partner's B-25, s/n 44-28765, and we were never able to do anything with it, like restoring it, once the parts were gone. So, as far as I'm concerned, Harry Doan was an ASS HOLE and a thief.
Last edited by DIK SHEPHERD on Mon May 15, 2006 6:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mon May 15, 2006 7:30 am

Jack

Do you have any photos of the Rabbit when it was with Jack Rogers ??

Steve

Mon May 15, 2006 8:03 am

Dik;
I'm sorry you got hosed. I only knew Harry from the shows at TICO and his yearly invitation to visit his hangar at New Smyrna. When I was one of the curators at the New England Air Museum we sold him a Skyraider outer-wing panel and the QEC for a Martin Mauler. I never had the opportunity to really "know" him, so it's is veryt sad to find out later that people you liked and treated you well have a different side.
I'll be thinking of him a little differently now.
Jerry

Mon May 15, 2006 5:40 pm

Will "Super Rabbit" be flying for this airshow season?

Dennis

???

Tue May 16, 2006 9:51 am

Will "Super Rabbit" be flying for this airshow season?

No, she's still at Evergreen & Jim the owner is in FL for the summer.
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