A20 recoveries from PNG

Hi David et al
There is interest in bringing the B25 out as well as the two better known B17 wrecks and at least one B24 but like everything – money and opportunity have to play a role here but I certainly agree that this would be THE B25 to have in a collection .

Regards
John P

Cees – This one! http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-25/43-4513.html

Much as I love the A-20 , I would be great to see the B-25H rescued and restored that was/is languishing out there.

Dave,

Which one are you referring to?

Cheers

Cees

……..But because I am a soft touch here are the shots in question

Regards
john p

WoW 😮 , great pics.

Thanks John

Much as I love the A-20 , I would be great to see the B-25H rescued and restored that was/is languishing out there.

Easy answer I have so many up I have two pages !!

http://community.webshots.com/user/setter125 – the first one 3,000 shots – the site you are looking at and
http://community.webshots.com/user/setter126007 which is the one with the shots of Big Nig

But because I am a soft touch here are the shots in question

Regards
john p

Yes that is correct, but several other hulks were recovered which were in much worse condition than Big Nig for parts sources IIRC.

Dave

Dave,

Agreed 😀

It would be nice if someone involved in the restorations actually had photos/inventory of what was what, and just happened to be a forumite.

John P…. i’ve tried to find your photo’s of ‘Big Nig’ again, but its very confusing in your albums.

For example, clicking on ‘A-20’ just shows wartime photo’s, while clicking on ‘A-20 restorations’ just shows wing parts, and i cant find it again wading through the Wangarratta photos. Help ?

Yes that is correct, but several other hulks were recovered which were in much worse condition than Big Nig for parts sources IIRC.

Dave

Prity ironic ‘Big Nig’ was stripped to finish the other restorations and now is looking for those exact same parts to complete it …forward thinking?….hmmmmm.

Dave

Dave,

Dont forget that ‘Big Nig’ was discovered/wreckovered well ~after~ the other restorations had commenced.

Given that the manpower & location problems for the whole project cast a shadow over the whole thing anyway at the start, if it were you who had struggled to get to the point they had reached, would you start all over ?

And if so, what would become of the partially completed A-20’s ?

As it stands, the restored aircraft look fantastic, the UK project gets a major boost (and the UK gets a Boston, hurrah !) with the fuselage of 43-9628, and Murray & team will work their magic on ‘Big Nig’, upshot of which, ‘Big Nig’ will become a genuine airworthy warbird and representative of the breed.

(Que: intense debate on flying aircraft v museum display… eek 😮 )

Thanks for the A-20 updates John.

Please let us know the progress of ‘Big Nig’ or perhaps you could post the photo’s themselves here instead of the link to the album/s ?

Cheers….

Yes Dave it is/was a time capsule when it came out of the mud and should have been cleaned, conserved and put on display as she was but thats long over now so I just hope they do a good job on her and she flies in her original identity before the PC Police step in and say it’s wrong – Murray is keeping her for himself apparently so he doesn’t take any crap so I guess there is a fair chance she will be OK –

Regards
John P

Prity ironic ‘Big Nig’ was stripped to finish the other restorations and now is looking for those exact same parts to complete it …forward thinking?….hmmmmm.

Dave

Dog House leader

Substantial parts of 10 were recovered – 2 were restored by the RAAF at RAAF Base Amberley led by Dennis Dogget a team spent quite a few years restoring “Jessica” the only remaining RAAF aircraft – This machine is now on display at RAAF Point Cook.
Also restored was a USAAF/C example “Hell N Pelikan”. This machine was for the PNG Government , however it is in storage pending the construction of a facility to display it in PNG and has been stored at Amberley for quite a few years.
The remaining components including “BigNig” were sent to Point Cook RAAFM for storage and components have over the years made their way to the US and UK restorations.

The vast bulk of the left over components however have recently passed on to Murray Griffiths at Wangarratta Precision Aerospace Productions including the remarkably well preserved Big Nig and will form the basis of 4 restorations to flying condition.

Regards
John P

Setter, didn’t they recover one in the eighties, and fully restore it to static condition? Pardon my french and not to offend anyone, but the nose art on the aircraft was ” Big Nig”? 😮

Magic,

Good show by the RAAF to take all that trouble to recover so many airframes. Wonder if they would like to do it again.

There was also a Ki-61 Tony but the tail had been stolen when the RAAF came to collect it while shortly before it had been complete. What happened to that one?

Cheers

Cees

Thank you Setter, looking forward to seeing more.

SoG

last one … More pics soon

Regards
John P

article 3

Second article

khere are the articles from the time – 1984 Venture 1 onwards
To recover ultimately 10 Bostons

This is looking interesting please post more.