World most costly warbird is?

sabredriver · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:03 am

What is the world most costly - in either salvage/rebuilding to flight or buy outright that has ever been documented?

Bombers are what come to mind in the low $10ms?

The Constellation in ozaleland costed around $2.0m when all done to it, when compared to Mustang hitting $1.5m oz the connie was a cheap good buy...

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:56 am

As far as money actually spent on recovery and restoration, my guess would be Glacier Girl. Who knows how many millions were spent over years digging her out of the ice and rebuilding her.

SN

Scott Rose · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 9:07 am

I would think the Collings Corsair is up there, especially for a single engined aircraft. Restored then ditched and restored again. Thats gotta add up!

Ztex · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 9:25 am

How much has been spent so far on the B-29 Doc?

How much would FiFi be worth to ya? How much has been spent on her in the last 30 years?

B-17 909 had restoration, a crash, re-restoration...that's expensive...

I would agree that Glacier Girl would be right up there at the top

Mike · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:54 am **Posts:** 3331

It wouldn't surprise me if Paul Allen's Me 262 turns out to be one of the more expensive restorations, when you add in the cost of re-manufacture of Jumo engine components using modern materials.

That's always assuming that it ever actually flies, and doesn't end up as an 'airworthy' restoration only ever displayed on the ground.

David J Burke · **Joined:** Sat Nov 27, 2004 4:52 am **Posts:** 189

I would have thought that Vulcan XH558 at £5.5 million so far was pretty up there with the best of them!

Mudge · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:04 pm

I heard the figure of $10 million for total cost of Glacier Girl.

Mudge the hearing impaired :wink:

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11324

Cost to whom?

A private individual who paid for the restoration from their pocket- actual dollars spent?

Many museums have volunteers and/or get labor and materials donated. Do these count in your cost figures?

The Planes of Fame N9MB restoration took many years and was virtually all volunteer labor and had much material (and the restoration facility/warehouse space) donated. I doubt that anyone tallied the hours and the value of the material though.

RMAllnutt · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:12 pm

The DC-6, owned and operated by Red Bull, cost $26million to restore. I am not sure if it was originally a C-118, so perhaps it technically wasn't a warbird, but that's a lotta moola in anyone's books.

It really does come down to whether you mean actual dollars spent on the restoration, effective dollars (when you include volunteer labor), or how much a warbird is worth on the market.

I should suspect that if it is effective dollars then NASM's Enola Gay would come very close to the top of the list considering the depth and detail of that restoration. Then of course, there was the resparring of the BBMF's lancaster... I wonder how much that cost!

Cheers. Richard

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:52 pm

my vote....vulcan & glacier girl

mike furline · **Joined:** Wed May 05, 2004 3:45 pm **Posts:** 2636

Was the Red Bull DC-6 $26M or $2.6M. How could you spend $26M on a DC-6? The latter sounds more reasonable.
I believe the NASM Enola Gay cost $1M over a 10 year period.

Regards,
Mike

RMAllnutt · **Posted:** Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:33 am

mike furline wrote:

Was the Red Bull DC-6 $26M or $2.6M. How could you spend $26M on a DC-6? The latter sounds more reasonable.
I believe the NASM Enola Gay cost $1M over a 10 year period.

Regards,
Mike

No, you read it right... $26 Million. For some lucky few, cost is no object. With respect to Enola Gay, while I am sure the actual cash outlay may only have been $1M, I am sure it was much, much more if you included all of the donated time and materials (which was my point). It took a lot longer than 10 years to restore her too... closer to 20 from beginning to end.

Cheers. R.

mike furline · **Joined:** Wed May 05, 2004 3:45 pm **Posts:** 2636

RMAllnutt wrote:

mike furline wrote:

Was the Red Bull DC-6 $26M or $2.6M. How could you spend $26M on a DC-6? The latter sounds more reasonable.
I believe the NASM Enola Gay cost $1M over a 10 year period.

Regards,
Mike

No, you read it right... $26 Million. For some lucky few, cost is no object. With respect to Enola Gay, while I am sure the actual cash outlay may only have been $1M, I am sure it was much, much more if you included all of the donated time and materials (which was my point). It took a lot longer than 10 years to restore her too... closer to 20 from beginning to end.

Cheers. R.

How is it possible to spend $26M on a DC-6? All four engines and props, brand new, zero time might be $1M, maybe. Even if you built an airframe from scratch, $25M??????????????????

I have a friend thats a mechanic/restorer at NASM. He told me 10yrs, thats what I went with.

Regards,
Mike

Ollie · **Posted:** Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:03 pm

Paint job, interior, etc. gives you 25M$. Fit some high tech avionics, satellite internet, etc.

Taylor Stevenson · **Posted:** Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:59 pm

After an engine overhaul ANY warbird seems to be the most expensive!

Think about FiFi!! :shock:

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