Undergoing Restoration at Pima

Yes, you see right, a B-36, sorry this is as close as I could get to it

Where the heck did they find it?

I heard that the Air Force Museumhad gone to Lackland AFB and collected the XC-99 that was sitting along side the road near Kelly AFB.

I have no idea, but it is in pieces

Looks like the Ft. Worth B-36 to me. Read about it in Flightjournal (I think).

Indeed, it is The City of Fort Worth (B-36J-10-CF III 52-2827). After languishing in seven pieces waiting while a dedicated group in Ft Worth tried to raise funds for a museum, the Air Force decided it should go to Pima. It arrived last summer, and almost immediately they began corrosion control. I think they’re estimating about two years to get it restored and re-assembled for display.

I’m sorry for Fort Worth’s loss, but we in Arizona lost both the MATS Connie and the Champlain Fighter Museum over the past couple of years, so I don’t feel so bad getting this great bird in our back yard.

[#ditto] Boy wasnt that a shame to loose the Champlain Fighter Museum here at Falcon field but we still have the confederite airforce there.

I must say the Champlain collection is very cool. You can still see some of the great aircraft here at the Boeing Museum of Flight! Great collection in very good hands.

I’m grateful to Mr. Champlain for not breaking up the collection. As I understand it, his daughters were not interested in it, and rather than having the collection sold piecemeal after he was gone, he spent years looking for a buyer to take the whole thing. So if we in Arizona had to lose this fine museum, it’s a no small consolation that the Boeing Museum of Flight got it intact.

A local group tried to raise funding to re-open the museum with a jet fighter collection, but were unable to raise sufficient funds (just like Ft. Worth), and apparently faced an unsympathetic local government in the effort.

Now if someone could just get the B-36 out of Walt Soplata’s backyard and into a proper museum. I suspect that fuse is too far gone though.

When I was in the Army Reserves in the late 70’s we had our Summer Camps at Ft. Sam Houston and we had to fly our Hueys over to Kelly AF Base to hanger them for hail storms and the XC-99 was sitting there. I got the chance to walk around the huge beast but no camera. I remember the other aircraft at Lackland, the largest on display were the B-17 and B-24. They had some neat diorama’s in the Museum that was near by in the old barracks buildings.

go to: http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6441 for more pictures. -Bret

The YB-36 that Mr Soplata has is the 2nd prototype built and was on display at the USAF Museum for a number of years before the Museum moved to it’s present location and acquired a J model B-36 for display. The USAF “demilitarized” the aircraft before they were willing to let it go. They used a bulldozer to bash off the engines and landing gear and then smashed the fuselage into multiple pieces. Some of the pieces, such as the cockpit, would make nice displays, but it would be impossible to put the whole thing back together again. Sort of like Humpty Dumpty.

Darwin, O.F. [alien]

It’s always great to see one of these great birds restored. It’s quite a shame that she never got to fly again, but I’m happy that she’s being resored at all.

I’m actually ecstatic that a related project, the XC-99 (transport version of the B-36) is not only getting restored also, but they’re bringing it to the Museum in Dayton, one close enough for me to (eventually) see her in person! [:D]

I didn’t know about it until a few days ago, but the UH-1C at the Museum was in our Unit in Vietnam and flew as a Shark. I think it was “pre teeth” though. Our Web page was down a month and when they got it back up there was an update on aircraft on display that served with the 174th in Vietnam. I believe the one a Pima is “430”. If you took any pictures of it put them in the Helicopter section for me.

For Those interested, here is a link to the aircraft being restored for display on the USS Midway down in San Diego. They have a nice list of aircraft in various states of restoration.

http://www.midwaysaircraft.org/

steve

That was kind of the impression I got from a few of the pictures I’d seen. Still, I hope that someday he donates his collection to a proper museum(s) he still has a number of mostly intact aircraft that are salvageable.

I myself miss the Champlain Fighter Museum. I once built a model of their MiG-21; it’s sitting right here in my bedroom as I type this.

Miss Champlain also, too bad local politics helped kill a move in the Pheonix metro area