Warbird Information Exchange

The thing that gets to me about the NMUSAF guys and the USAF in general is the fact that they had thousands of warbirds which THEY destroyed and now we have so few left.

Posted on Tue, Jan. 30, 2007



Bill would keep spy plane in Minnesota

FREDERIC J. FROMMER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Minnesota Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar introduced legislation Tuesday aimed at helping the Minnesota Air Guard Museum retain a 1960s spy plane that is slated for transfer to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

Last week, Air Force workers began disassembling the A-12 Blackbird, which has been at the museum since 1991. A team of Minnesota volunteers had rescued the 99-foot-long plane from the scrap heap in California and restored it, including a rare refurbishment of its cockpit instruments.

The bill by Coleman, a Republican, and Klobuchar, a Democrat, would transfer ownership of the plane to the Minnesota Air National Guard Historical Foundation, which runs the museum. It would also require the U.S. Air Force to finance the plane's reassembly.

The Blackbird, and many other retired military aircraft, are considered "on-loan" from the U.S. Air Force Museum, which maintains control over display and has the authority to move them. Last November, the Air Force recalled the plane to give to the CIA for the agency's 60th anniversary celebration this year.

The plane had been on loan to the 133rd Airlift Wing of the Minnesota Air National Guard at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport; the Minnesota museum itself is not certified for the loan of Air Force historical property.

"Volunteers throughout Minnesota have devoted many years and extensive resources to restoring and maintaining this plane, which has become the centerpiece of the Minnesota National Guard Museum," Coleman said in a statement.

"Minnesotans literally rescued this historic plane from the scrap heap," Klobuchar said in a statement. "Hundreds of Minnesotans devoted countless volunteer hours and resources to restoring this plane. Our government should respect and encourage this kind of volunteer initiative."

Minnesota House members were also working on companion legislation.

Messages left after business hours Tuesday with officials from the Air Force Museum were not returned.

But in a letter to Coleman last month, Lt. Col. Michael Fleck, who works in the Air Force's Office of Legislative Liaison, wrote that given the plane's origins in the CIA's "OXCART" program, "it is most appropriate that one of the few remaining examples be allocated to them for memorialization." He also said the plane didn't have a historical association with the 133rd Airlift Wing.

The A-12 Blackbird was able to fly at more than three times the speed of sound, according to James Goodall, who has written five books on the Blackbird and led the effort to restore the plane.

While serving with the 133rd Airlift Wing nearly 20 years ago, Goodall arranged to get the plane, which had been retired in 1968, using two cargo airplanes to ship it from California. He said he raised $27,000 for the effort. He then led volunteers who helped restore the plane, and, he said, purchased and scrounged instruments for the cockpit. Minnesota companies also helped with the effort.

"I spent almost two full years to get it ready for public display, then another five years maintaining it," said Goodall, who now lives near Seattle but still has family in Minnesota. "I personally painted it by hand three times."

"It's been very, very painful," he said of the Air Force's decision to move the plane. But Goodall, who has helped rally opposition to the Air Force, said he was hopeful the legislation could save the plane for the Minnesota museum.

Richard W. Wiessner, a museum foundation board member, said that although parts of the plane have been removed, most of it is still intact. He was excited about the legislation.

"I think it's great, but can they get it through both houses of Congress and get it signed into law?" asked Wiessner, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force.

Workers from Worldwide Aircraft Recovery swept snow off the Minnesota Air Guard Museum’s Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance plane, restored by Minnesota volunteers, on Wednesday before beginning to dismantle it for shipment to CIA headquarters in Virginia.

Neat if not a sad picture
http://www.startribune.com/10036/rich_media/957631.html





I wonder if work has stopped in lue of the bill working it's way through the houses

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/957339.html

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

Spy buffs target Blackbird 'hijacking'
Plane's allies strive to rescue aircraft as CIA begins moving it
BY DAVE ORRICK
Pioneer Press
Who do you think gets interested when headlines warn the CIA is "hijacking" a spy plane from a group of veterans in Minnesota?

Spy buffs, of course, who decry the federal government's controversial decision to dis-assemble a rare A-12 "Blackbird" spy plane at the Minnesota Air Guard Museum and move it to the CIA headquarters in Virginia.

For several weeks, Minnesota's congressional delegation has been trying to come to the rescue of the low-budget museum, and now they have a new cadre of allies.

Among them is John Lear. His qualifications include accomplished pilot on 17 years of CIA missions, passionate lover of the Cold War-era A-12 and SR-71 spy planes, and son of Learjet founder Bill Lear. He's a sort of nexis for an eclectic network of pilots, aviation historians, former CIA operatives and folks whose Google alerts include phrases like "Area 51" and "Operation Oxcart." He has no ties to Minnesota, but he said Thursday he's taking up the fight.

"This is a royal rip-off," he said in a phone interview from his home in Las Vegas. "I'm going to pull every string I can."

One such string is his late father's longtime support of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "I know he's busy, but my father was always his largest contributor, and I've never asked him for much." Officials with Reid couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

A measure introduced last month by Minnesota Senators Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar would order the Air Force to return the plane to the local museum, which is near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and put it back together. It also would make the museum's foundation the plane's owner, replacing its current status as a loaner from the Air Force. The bill's future remains unclear. It's currently awaiting action in the Armed Services Committee.

Lear also can muster conspiracy theorists on the Internet and talk radio. He's hoping to go grassroots, encouraging his listeners and fans to write, e-mail or otherwise "bug" their elected members of Congress over what he's pitching as an injustice.

"As taxpayers, we paid for this plane," he said. "They can't just hijack it."

We taxpayers may have paid tens of millions of dollars each for the 100 or so sleek supersonic Blackbirds, but we won't know how much it's going to cost to move the one here in the Twin Cities to Langley, Va., if the CIA has anything to say about it.

An Air Force spokesman told the Pioneer Press the CIA was paying for it, and here's what CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said: "Because CIA contracts as a rule contain a nonpublicity clause, I cannot discuss specific terms. But this arrangement was prepared with great care and involves an experienced firm."

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum has written two letters to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne asking about the cost of the move and has had no response, her office said Thursday.

Jim Goodall, who's written five books on the Blackbird, estimates it'll cost "at least $300,000." Goodall, a retired master sergeant from Minnesota's Air National Guard, is more responsible than anyone else for transporting and refurbishing the plane from mothball status in California in 1991.

Apparent CIA contractors were cutting the black fuselage in half Thursday, to the dismay of museum board member Dick Weissner. "It's ugly now," said Weissner.

The decision to take Minnesota's only Blackbird was made by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force after the CIA asked for one in time for its 60th anniversary this year. Museum spokeswoman Sarah Swan said the choice was in part because it had "no significant relevance to (the Minnesota Guard) or the local communities."

Goodall counters that three of the six CIA A-12 pilots have family in Minnesota, and many of its components were made here by Honeywell, Rosemont and 3M.

Dave Orrick can be reached at dorrick@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2171.

Ben Garvin, Pioneer Press

Apparent CIA contractors were cutting the black fuselage in half Thursday, to the dismay of museum board member Dick Weissner.

You can't blame the current USAF for things that were done 60 years ago.