B29 Doc (and other B29s)

Matt, There are no end of Americans, Brits, Kiwis and Aussies who have “the guts to try” and have completed far more complex and frustrating ‘recoveries’ than this. “Glacier Girl” being just one example. You appear to think that I’m bagging Americans for their get-up-and-go. Far from it. I have spent a very great deal of time in the USA apart from many months assisting in the rebuild then the Trans Pacific flights of a B.25 and PV.1 Ventura to Australia. I have many American friends both there and here and their enthusiasm and abilities are infectious. I was talking about this project which, excluding non-US sources, a very large number of American commentators, warbird restorers, warbird owners etc have all criticised as being well under planned, under funded, under resourced, and basically a forseen disaster from the get-go. I cannot think of one example apart from the Kee Bird where a recovery team has totally destroyed the object of their ‘recovery’ and had team members die as a result of the work. Here I quote US commentators who have stated that the team member virtually “worked himself to death”. It did not happen with the Glacier Girl team, it did not happen with Mid-Atlantic’s P.61 recovery team, it didn’t happen with the Spitfire recoveries from India nor the Mustang/Spitfire recoveries from Israel to name but a few. It did happen with Kee-Bird and it was a disaster on every level that could have been prevented had it not been for the Gung-ho, do it on the cheap, close-enough is good enough attitude that prevailed and has come out in numerous documents and the recovery film itself. That aircraft could have been flying now for all to see and enjoy. There are many more untold stories around this machine’s demise that shall one day surface. Again, this could have been done so much better and not on a multi-millionaire’s budget. It is a classic example of the citation that goes with a local ‘award’ here in Oz. “Not all disasters are total failures – they serve as good examples of bad examples.I’ll get off my pulpit now and let the thread continue as it was – a discussion on B.29s, survivors, flyers and what we would all like to see and not a forum for venting our resplective spleens. I shall not post on this thread again to ensure that it continues as it started.

So, does anyone out there have an inkling about the potential overseas star aircraft for Legends this year? Despite the Merlins, it would also be nice to see the IWM CASA/Heinkel painted up in “movie” temporary paint to represent a real BoB Heinkel and take a place out on the line. Perhaps another possibility would be the airworthy full size Potez 63-11 that was built in the USA from original plans?

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful ! Such evocative pics….. Legends is going to be “Massive”. Perhaps the IWM could be persuaded to drag out the Heinkel, dust it off, put on some ‘movie’ paint in real BoB markings (so forget it is a CASA) and have it out on the flightline …..

US scheme certainly and from what I was told the pilot is still with us and living in Texas

Just tried twice to reply and it was rejected despite my tag being listed on the bottom of the thread…….. oh well. Red 10 does a great job. Commentary is not easy and to pitch it to a wide range in the audience is difficult. I can guarantee that he does it differently to various audience types. He also has his superior officer there ready to drop the sword on him and also can potentially have the Chief of Air Force there as a critic……. also, being so inconspicuous standing out in front of the crowd in a red suit does have its own pressures if you are military trained or not !

For the question earlier ref not announcing pilots names, I think that you will find that it is a policy of the organsers that the names are not mentioned in case of an incident.