Warbird Information Exchange

Any news?

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

I borrowed this response from Aerovin's Warbirds forum:

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OldBillB17F Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 12:55 pm

Here is the latest news on Swamp Ghost, dated Nov. 16th.
Two containers of B-17 parts have gone missing.

http://www.theswampghost.com/news/2006/ ... index.html

Holy Shit Bat Man!!!!

How come we're only now hearing about this???

Shay
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Semper Fortis

I don't know how true it is but i was told the B-17 was hacked up and put in 4 containers.
Can a B-17 fit in 4 containers,you would need to cut it into verry small pieces.

this perhaps does not boad well for the once inconic Swamp Ghost

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Why is that? I'll bet there are plenty of places that could put Humpty Dumpty back together again- PNG not being one of them of course...

Might be harder to put back together if a chain saw was used, much easier if a drill was used.

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-Bill
B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat" Restoration Team

Yikes...sorry I asked...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

As for the Rat, I think that you guys are doing a great job. Do you have any recent pics? The Swamp Ghost, I can't think of a single reason why that aircraft should stay there. It is rare, historic, and I don't know many people that are going to travel to PNG to see a B-17. The Navy Museum is sometimes a little crazy about stepping in on aircraft recovery, and the USAFM is not. I do feel that this is one case that the USAF should get involvd in. The PNG government is so corrupt that it is not funny. Besides what makes them think this B-17 is theirs. It is owned by the USAF. The PNG doesn't care about the B-17 ata ll, they just want to make sure they get their monet out of it.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Whatever they did to swampghost, short of smelting it, is ok with me. The main thing is that it is out of "png" and that is the best news I've heard concerning this A/C. As far as rebuilding the bird its gonna take money and time and i could not think of a better way to spend time and money than on a b-17 called swampghost.

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Hang The Expense

"if this is the case" The problem I see now is that they only got out with 2 of the 4 possibly 6 containers. Hardly a victory in my eyes so far. I hope the rest makes it out.

Also in the article it mentions a P-38 all crated up and also siezed. Anybody got any info on this bird?

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Mustangdriver - Are you being serious? The B-17 was abandoned there -not loaned or any other variation of that theme! There isn't a sixty plus year old post it note with 'Things to do : recover the Swamp Ghost' on it sitting in the Pentagon.
She seemed to be surviving quite well with the people in PNG - certainly better than some of th B-17's that met the smelter in the U.S and Europe after the war . I find it amazing that people describe the PNG government as 'corrupt' - that would never happen in the U.S would it!

David

Come now, Swamp Ghost is by far not an "intact" 100% complete aircraft. She had been looted and souvenir'd off of for many years now. All be it at a slower pace due to location and access. But that too in time would have changed as PNG's civilization progressed. You can't honestly tell me that if SG had stayed put, that 40 years from now she would look just as good as she does today. Just one can't say that SG looks just as good today as she did 40 years. It just does work that way. The elements and "Tourists" would take their toll if she were allowed to continue to stay where she was. The only option to preserve her was to recover her and bring her indoors. And basicly at this point in time I just don't see PNG doing that for many reasons.

PNG's best bet in my opinion would be to allow the wrecks to be recovered in mass and establish legally binding contracts for their return in a said amount of time after restoration is complete. This maybe in terms of decades.

Regarding you comment havng to do with PNG's corruption. You can't honestly tell me that in that part of the world (As well as ours) that the wheels of progress aren't being greased with money. You have only to look at P.I. to see this as well as PNG.

Forgive me, I'm not trying to come across being too rash. I just want a realistic picture painted here.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

'Swamp Ghost' had indeed deteriorated over the years. You do have to ask exactly who was actually souveniring her. A picture taken in the 1970's showed her with an exploration team's Bell 47 sat on her wing.
I believe that by far the most parts were removed from her were by Western interests. As for recovering PNG's wrecks - rebuilding them and
then re-exporting them back at some stage in the future . Nice idea but in reality many of PNG's wrecks are now pretty desperate and I cannot see how you could fund virtually total rebuilds.