Warbird Information Exchange

Great stuff August, really enjoying the thread.

Yeah, me too.
Those Halifaxes are something else!

Andy

Glad you are liking them, guys.

Today, two Trimotors from my time in southern California that came to grief shortly after I photographed them.



Al Chaney's 4-AT Trimotor N7584, photographed at one of the Santa Monica auctions. These took place in the early 1990s and I always tried to go. They drew some interesting planes. Kermit weeks bought this plane at the auction or shortly after. About a year later, Hurricane Andrew dropped his hangar roof on it. The FAA lists it as damaged beyond repair, but shots of the wreckage show some intact parts. In a recent YT vid of a tour of Greg Herrick's collection, Kermit mentioned that the plane is under rebuild in Kalamazoo. I'll always have pleasant associations of this airplane with the 1/77 Monogram kit that I built as a kid, and hope to see it again one day.



Bushmaster 2000 at the Chino 1989 airshow. This plane was wrecked on takeoff in 2004 when the pilot forgot to remove the gust lock from the tail. The resulting short, uncontrolled flight ended in a parking lot with, luckily, no fatalities.

August

I recall seeing the Bushmaster at Chino in '89 and also remember seeing the footage of the failed flight attempt but never put two and two together August. I sure wish I had been smart enough to carry a camera with me to all those Chino shows back in the eighties. Instead we preferred to shoot video but, in hindsight, photos would have been better. Maybe one of these days I will see about digitizing the video and putting it up somewhere.

Did Kermit specify that Trimotor? Because he also has 5-ATB Trimotor N9651 - that was based here locally until '92 - that was reportedly undergoing restoration.

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Last time I saw N9651 it was on display at Fantasy of Flight, and didn't seem to need much work, certainly not a "rebuild." This pic is from 2010 or so.



Here is a page full of pics from 2003 of N7584 and another Trimotor, N1077, under restoration in Michigan. The location is given as Vicksburg, but that's a suburb of Kalamazoo.

August

Great to see it in that nice of condition.

_________________
remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

Since we are talking Ford Trimotors, I scanned a few more, and mostly populated by web site page for this type, which now depicts 11 different machines.

Here is a shot of the Naval Air Museum Trimotor in 1974 when it was displayed outdoors and not yet painted in Navy colors.



Also from 1974, here is the Grand Canyon Airlines Trimotor N414H when it was The Kansas Clipper.



August

I recommend the William Larkins book on the Ford. It gives histories of each airframe.
The survivors list is out of date...the book was published in the '90s...but easily updated via the internet.

I believe Air Classics has them on sale.

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I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

Maybe the EAA can use this pix

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My dad and I took a ride in this at Oshkosh in about 1974????

I took my son on a Tri-Motor ride at Oshkosh in 2016. Hopefully the tradition will stay in the family!

Thanks for the memory August.

I flew into Burbank airport back in 2003 to help my sister move from there for a week. Every morning about 10am a Ford Tri-Motor flew out of there. I wondered, what was up with that?

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DBF

I have been building a special page on my site that links to my galleries of 1920s and 1930s racing planes, original and replica. There are Schneider Cup racers, Thompson and Bendix Trophy racers, and MacRobertson Cup racers like the wonderful Bill Turner replica of the D.H.88 Comet. It's surprising how many of the classic racers are still represented as preserved originals, high-quality replicas, or (like the D.H.88) both.

http://aircraft-in-focus.com/classic-ra ... and-1930s/

Enjoy!

August

I was going through pics from my 1990 visit to the San Diego Air & Space Museum this week. (It's time I dropped by there again.) It was only after noticing that the Thomas-Morse S-4C is no longer listed among the museum's exhibits that I learned that it was acquired by a group of enthusiasts right here in the state of New York in 2009, gradually restored to flying condition, and flown within the past few months! What a great achievement by the folks up in Ithaca, where the plane was originally built. If this news was mentioned on this forum, I missed it.

Here is the group's web page: http://www.tommycomehome.org/

It's not clear whether they intend to continue flying it. I hope so. Wouldn't it be nice if it dropped by Rhinebeck one Sunday? The group credits the folks at Rhinebeck, who have a static S-4B, with helping with the restoration.

August

If you read down to the bottom of this article, it says it will be a non-flyer. https://www.localsyr.com/news/local-new ... w7aNjSEWmA

Sad; but, understandable.

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Cheers!

Lance Jones