87/88 sounds about right. I can remember unloading the Yak when it arrived from France. The Schlepps went to the US, one to Bob Pond (I last saw it rotting into the dirt at Chino with a busted canopy, about 6 years ago) and another, I believe, to a Dr John Whittington.

Wow, never knew that Mark ever flew Lindsey Walton’s Corsair !

I remember once, when Ray first flew it, Lindsey said to me “He kept trying to find things wrong with it so he could buy it off me cheap!” 🙂

Did the SHF ever operate a Venom? I thought they had a Vampire.

Mike J
City of Savannah is being restored to airworthy condition according to a recent issue of an American magazine…but they’ve been wrong before. :rolleyes:

Hmmmmm.

I had a good look over it a few weeks back on a trip to the East Coast. It is in a building where the only way to get it out will be to take it apart, miles from the nearest airport. The parts being used for the restoration are not, AFAIK, to airworthy standard, and the work is not being signed off as airworthy by a licenced enginner. Ergo, it will not be ‘airworthy’ once it is completed.

There are 4 or 5 under rebuild to flying status..

Indeed. But they are VERY long-term projects.

I believe the French group when they say that they’re storing it and will fly it in the distant future. Why not preserve one to have it fly in 50 or 100 years? I believe a scandinavian group is doing something similar with a DC-3.

We’ve seen that flying any aircraft, no matter how carefully or well intentioned has its risks.

As far as the Boeing Bee, I do hope the Seattle Museum of Flight parks the Bee in an area where it can be removed and flown periodically.

Many of the displayed B-17s (NMUSAF Shoo, Shoo Baby and Memphis Belle, The Mighty Eighth AF Museum in Savannah, etc) have or are restoring their aircraft to airworthy status but museum policys won’t let the planes fly.

The main reason given for the French for parking the B-17 is the increasing age of the crew looking after it. I doubt that process will be reversed in 50 or 100 years. Shoo Shoo Baby is destined for the Smithsonian. Neither Memphis Belle nor City of Savannah (which I visited a few weeks back) are being restored to airworthy. As for the MoF, they do not fly their Boeing 247, and have shown no signs of wanting to operate the B-17 – it simply does not tie in with the museum’s mission as a static collection.

That must be why you moved to California then Mike :p

I once counted up about 15 airworthy P-51s within a 100 mile radius of these I live.

There must be a similar number within the same radius of where I work (the nearest being about 100 yards away!) 🙂

Having said that, I still enjoy my trips back to Duxford, Old Warden, Hardwick, etc. There’s nothing quite like old airplanes on grass!

Not sure that you can quantify ‘best’. A bit like all those endless circular arguments that appear on here about the best fighter, bomber, etc. Are we playing ‘Top Trumps’ here?

The Beach, interesting how many of those that you consider ‘great’ are also ‘late’ 🙁

Hadn’t seen this still before… oops wrong film (The 1000 plane raid):D

I believe that this is the Planes of Fame’s ‘Piccadilly Lilly’, now under restoration to fly at Chino.