P-66?

[Stoney]

Years ago there was a rumor that there were 2 P-66s in MN, does anybody know if they were ever found? The guy that supposedly had them died. I know there were about 35 in China as I talked to a former Chinese pilot that saw them there. Always liked the looks of them.

[Cvairwerks]

Stoney: There were 2 that were supposedly brought back from China during the war for major rework. Neither ever resurfaced from the facility they were allegedly in. I've chased the rumors of where those aircraft went for nearly 40 years now and have never found any evidence that they survived. There were mentions in a couple of different publications about them, way back in the late '70's, saying at various times that they were located in California or Idaho, but never any names, locations of photos in any of the blurbs. The few parts that were supposed to be from one of them, turned out to be BT-13 parts and not P-66 parts.

The wing spars are the most complicated parts to build, if one were to do a replica. There is a tapered extrusion for the spar that would require having a die made and stock pulled and then machined to the final profile.

[F3A-1]

Stoney,

I saw the two in Minnesota many years ago. They were in fact cut up BT-13 or 15's to be powered by R-985s. Very poor workmanship. The only value I could see were the engines. Very sad.

Lex

[Stoney]

thinking more about the rumor, i think it was Minot, ND not MN. probably it was BT parts, don't think anyone would bring back P-66 parts. the Chinese pilot said they buried them to use after WW II against Moi.

[mike furline]

[AG pilot]

P-66's are very handsome aircraft to me.

[JohnB]

If a Corsair and a BT-13/15 had offspring, it would look like that.
Not a bad looking ship for its era.t

[jdvoss]

The vertical tail of the P-66 looks strikingly similar to that of the BT-13.

J.D.Voss
www.fuselagecodes.com

[Cvairwerks]

The original idea was that the BT and P would share numerous components to keep costs and design work down. Unfortunately, the sharing level ended up only being a few items, other than interior furnishings. Much of the fuselage aft of the production break looks the same, but is all dimensionally different. When I ran thru the prints, long years back, I don't remember anything that was close enough from the BT to use on a P build.

[Stoney]

true, the wings, flaps, tubular and the P-66 was flush riveted, but the center section was very similar.

[marine air]

At this point it's hopeless finding one above ground. Maybe the Chinese or Brits lost a few but now you are digging 80 year old crash sites. Best bet would be to build up a replica like the Fokker D.XXI in Holland. It seems like a straightforward design.

[Cvairwerks]

Best bet would be to build up a replica like the Fokker D.XXI in Holland. It seems like a straightforward design.

Only problem is that it uses about 50 different extrusions in the structure. Some are common ones, but a few are specific to the design. I don't think any of the oddball ones require more than about 40 feet, other than one or two in the fuselage. You'd burn a lot of cash having the needed extrusions pulled for the project.

[marine air]

CVairwerks, if you were going to produce a limited run of replicas, say a dpzen, what would be your pick?

[Cvairwerks]

I think that if I were going to build a batch of replica somethings, they would have to be multi-seat, single engine and fairly large. This is also making the assumption that total funding is supplied, not requiring it to fit in a T hangar, and it has to be able to be flown by pilots with low experience levels. I think it would be a toss up between the A-31-NO or the A-35B. Size wise, it's just a tiny bit smaller than a TBM, but just slightly faster in cruise.

The Brits and Aussies flew the heck out of their Vengeance's in both the south Pacific and Asia. Surprisingly, Brazil operated a batch of V-72's and A-35's up until sometime in 1948 for anti-sub work.

[Noha307]

When I ran thru the prints, long years back, I don't remember anything that was close enough from the BT to use on a P build.

I'm curious, where did you obtain the prints from? NASM? SDASM?