Those that rebuild Allen airplanes or do any sort of work for him are required to sign non disclosure contracts that forbid them discussing the nature of the work, at least in the media.

JH

Actually it was supposed to fly at the end of 2003…..I just saw it last month…..There would be no reason it wouldn’t be ready for Legends 2004. 2005????? No way!!!

JH

The NTSB should be releasing their report on Tobul’s airplane soon…I would think. Check back on this link to see when they do release the final report

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/AccList.asp?month=11&year=2002

The crash was Nov 10.

JH

Ah yes, the dreaded XMAS arrivals of those picture books!!!! We intellectuals WILL NOT STAND FOR SUCH RUBBISH!!!!!!!!! Worst book I’ve had lately was not an aviation book but was a racing book about Winston Cup driver Ernie Irvan, and it was co written with his cooperation. Just about everything in it was misspelled including his long time sponsor Texaco Havoline on every other page…..A monumental embarrassment…..Just frickin Horrible!!!!!
JH

I would think the book “Lindbergh’s Wartime Diaries” would have all that info, straight from the man himself.

JH

I haven’t been able to track down a pic on the net, but the Wildcat that crashed is the one that was painted in a gray and green scheme, in the 70s and 80s. I have a pic of it here somewhere from my Harlingen 86 trip….If someone doesn’t beat me to it I’ll try to upload it. Here’s more info also on the pilot and crash.

JH

Pilot killed at air show identified
By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Handout photo
Bill Johnson, right, shown with wife Linda, died in plane crash in Clear Lake shortly after Friday’s Wings Over Houston Airshow. Johnson was flying a vintage WWII plane.

William K. Johnson died doing what he wanted to do all his life — fly a World War II warplane.

“One of the last words he spoke to me was, ‘Boyd, I’m living a dream,'” Johnson’s brother-in-law, Boyd Parsons, said Sunday.

Johnson, 62, of Parkton, N.C., died Saturday when the Grumman FM-2 Wildcat he was flying crashed in a field off Clear Lake City Boulevard as it made its final landing approach at Ellington Field shortly after 6 p.m.

He had participated in Saturday’s Wings Over Houston Air Show at Ellington earlier in the day.

The single-engine Wildcat was manufactured in 1944 by General Motors and is owned by American Air Power Heritage Group, but it is flown and maintained by the Commemorative Air Force at its headquarters in Midland.

Johnson had 6,000 hours of flying time when he joined the CAF in 1999, said Bob Rice, CAF president.

“Among his peers he would have been seen as a very experienced pilot,” Rice said.

Johnson, a retired air traffic controller, had owned three vintage military aircraft: a PT-17 Stearman trainer, an SNJ-6 Navy advanced trainer and a British AT-19 Reliant navigational trainer, Rice said.

Parsons said Johnson underwent three years of training before he was allowed to fly the Wildcat for the CAF.

“His dream was to fly a Navy combat fighter from World War II,” he said.

Rice said Johnson had flown the Wildcat in several other air shows, most recently in Midland.

Johnson was the airboss, who orchestrates airshows, for the CAF Carolinas Wing. The plane was based in Franklin, Va., he said.

Officials said Johnson was participating in a photo opportunity along with several other planes when the crash occurred.

Authorities had not determined the cause of the crash as of Sunday.

A spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board said an investigator had been sent to the crash site.

The Grumman Wildcat, like the one destroyed in the crash, was delivered to the Navy in 1940 and was used in every major naval battle in the Pacific during World War II.

Well I say good luck on trying to preserve that Concorde in Baaahhharrbados. I visited there on a cruise ship every week for 6 months two years ago, and it rained alot. It poured down rain so hard it makes the UK look like the Sahara Desert. You’ll be able to put your hands through the skin of that Concorde in about two years. Sheeeeeessuus!!!!!!!:mad: I also heard today that one Concorde will be flown to Mojave, CA to preserve it….Funny huh, it’s the total opposite of flying one to Barbados!!!!!! If anybody can update on that rumour I’d appreciate it.

JH