Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupéry absolutely captivated me as a child.

You might be interested in the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. It’s about a two hour drive from downtown Boston. Not a huge collection, but they do have a B-29…

Website here: http://www.neam.org/

Harald

Image 105 shows some “anti-glider poles” hanging down from the front of the Airacobras. What were they meant to accomplish?

Harald

Bell Airacuda

There’s a first person account of flying the Bell XFM-1 Airacuda here:

http://yarchive.net/mil/bell_yfm1_horrors.html

Harald

I’m with JDK on this. I think it is arrogant and self-serving for any of us to decide that what is best for the historical aviation preservationist community, or for the overlapping but different historical aviation restorationist community, should take precedence over the wishes and perhaps the best interests of the local community. (I should point out that these are all, in a global sense, very small communities.) As to ownership, I believe that the people of PNG have at least as strong a claim on that as anyone else. And if lives were lost and remains unrecovered, the site should be considered a a gravesite until the remains have been repatriated. From my perspective, unless there has been some negotiated compensation, it sounds like the salvaging of this aircraft is something that was perpetrated upon the local community, and perhaps upon the families of the dead, by outside interests that simply had more power.

Now, I fully understand the rarity of the B-17E model and the value of having physical access to an example of one. Accordingly, I think it would be wrong to destroy its originality in order to make it fly. Relatively speaking, there are LOTS of B-17’s in the air today, and some of them are having trouble finding funding to keep them airborne. So what it boils down to is this:

1) The local community should be compensated, if that has not already been done, perhaps by returning the Boston to PNG, suitably housed, as Steve T suggests. Perhaps it is better done by cataloguing other wrecks and lending some marketing savvy to nurture a tourist economy. Maybe there is another way, but compensation there should be.
2) We as a community should preserve the B-17E, but not destroy its originality through restoration. If someone absolutely has to see a B-17E in the air, let it either be built new or wait until more wrecks have been found so the rarity is not as acute an issue.
3) We as a community should support the upkeep of the B-17’s that can still fly and fight for funds and for a social/political/economic climate that will allow them to survive (or even flourish?).

Just my two cents worth…

Harald

Hold your horses Snapper. Fw 190A-5/U8,PN999, ex-‘white 6’ of I/SKG 10, captured Manston 20 June 43, to A&AEE and then RAE, where it was flown by Beamont on 13 September 43. Later to 1426 Flight and CFE – as ‘EA-4’. See ‘War Prizes’ by Phil Butler. Think I have a pic somewhere …

According to a post by Tony C on another thread, this was Wk.Nr. 2596

(see http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54189 )

Harald