Tallichet’s B-29 made a one time flight to March AFB with the gear down and never flew again. Fertile Myrtle was always “marginally airworthy” when Ralph Johnson owned it and actuall didn’t fly much. She didn’t get used in The Right Stuff because she lost an engine and couldn’t be repaired in time. There were also very valid concerns about the reliability and airworthiness by the studio. As a result, “FIFI” got the contract. Myrtle didn’t fly in the movie The Enola Gay for the same reasons and ended up being used only in ground shots. Had she stayed running, “FIFI” and her both would have both been on film.

British C-130’s used to have ashtrays and no smoking signs!

C-17s have both as well. When I was flying on Herks we used to have guys go to the cargo ramp and pull the seal off of the door drain. Then they’d put a seat rod (hollow tube) over the drain hole and light up a smoke. The vacume on the seat rod would pull the smoke right out of the airplane. On the C-17 everybody would just pull the seal away from the escape hatch and let the smoke out. The screeching of the pressure leak was irritating as hell but it kept the smoke outside.

The Santa Monica Swordfish is on static display at CAF headquarters in Midland, TX. The wings in Colorado were probably for this same airplane as they were the ones that did the restoration.

Boeing C-17. I’m curious if you have any involvement with C-17s? Or is it just a particular favorite of yours?

I’m lucky enough to be flight engineering “FIFI” into Midland on Friday and then sharing the engineer duties with a couple of other guys during the weekend.

The planes that come to HQ in October differ each year. It depends on the budget for the show and other deals that individual units might have going on. Sometimes two B-17s show up, sometimes none. Sometimes all three Mustangs show up, sometimes none. It just depends!