Seems to be a single seat metal? fuselage parasol or biplane with a horizontally opposed twin cylinder engine?

This configuration is quite advanced for 1919, and rather surprising since there were so many WW1 surplus airframes available at the time.

I suspect its more likely a late 1920s design, but you would assume its well documented if it was Dumonts?

The B-58 was saved, and the B-47 got relocated as well, and this was/is the oldest B-47 survivor and in fact the second XB-47 prototype and hence quite historically significant – its gone to Edwards AF Base where it was flight tested, and is one of 23 currently listed as surviving from 2032 built (1% survival rate)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Boeing_B-47_Stratojets

Of the 35 major military airframes that are listed as having been onsite, only 6 were scrapped, with the other 29 finding new homes and that includes a number of large and difficult aircraft to dismantle and road transport including C130A, B58, XB47, Phantom II, F-111, Corsair II.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_Chanute_Aerospace_Museum

The losses included a C97 Stratofreighter, C133 Cargomaster, and the C47 that caught fire while being “gas axed”.

Probably the rarest aircraft to be scrapped was the RB-66 Douglas Destroyer, which was one of only 294 of the type built in the mid 1950’s and one of what was 6 survivors.

However, with 5 of the 294 built still preserved, that’s a survival rate of nearly 2%.

(Compare that to say the Lancaster where 17 survive from 7,400 built, ie a survival rate of only 0.2% of a far more historically significant type.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_B-66_Destroyer

So yes, you cant save everything – but in this case saving 29 of 35 is a pretty good batting average, and congratulations to the NMUSAF for finding new homes for so many of these airframes with alternative museums.

Regards

Mark Pilkington

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buzzbeurling said, “Amelia Earhart, Glenn Miller, the French Oiseax(sorry for mispellings). Interesting how donations are asked for searches that will take years and never be finished. Sounds like a well paid job for life. Maybe they will get a big government grant as well from various countries.”

buzzbeurling raises two good points, the first of which agrees with how my view of TIGHAR evolved over my 18 year membership – TIGHAR is in the business of looking for things that can’t be found. Or the chance of finding them is, to quote from TIGHAR’s forums, “vanishingly small.” It is a business – make no mistake – regardless of whether it has the IRS’ non-profit seal of approval. It is the only job Gillespie has had for more than three decades, and he has made a very decent living at it, in a succession of houses, which have been supported and/or paid for in part by the very members he says he serves. All of this is public record.

[/u]But … all of his many, many, projects – every single one – has been a failure. Every. Single. One. [/u]I am at a loss as to how that record can continue to inspire any level of confidence, in the general public or potential donors.

https://tighar.org/Projects/projectslist.html

1. The Earhart Project – @30 Years?, >$2MUSD , 9 Trips to Niku? and not 1 piece of undeniable Earhart or Electra evidence.

2. Project Maid of Harlech – @10 years? – the P38 is still sitting in the shallows on the coast of Wales – no active plan to do anything

3. Historic Preservation education and training to museums/restorers – Yet Tighar is the most derided, least respected “Aviation Heritage group” in the world

4. Project Midnight Ghost – – Nothing found of the “White Bird”, and no evidence it ever made it to the US Coast let alone Maine

Projects NOT LISTED

5. Project – Glenn Miller & his Norseman- A fisherman drags up the remains of an aircraft and then drops it back into the Channel, and his description fits perfectly with Tighars next High Profile Revenue Generating Project, – even though the Norsman has a steel tube fuselage and wooden wings and hence is unlikely to remain much more than a corroded engine, let alone survive being lifted by a trawler!

6. Project – Save A Devastator – No longer in the Project Listing but still given its own section in their forum is the 20 year plan to recover one of the two Devastators sitting in the sea around the Marshall Islands – never mind that the Marshall Islands has said no to any recovery by the USN itself, and that the USN has recovered 40+ aircraft from the Great Lakes while Tighar – well they havent recovered ANYTHING!

7. Project B17 – “Lady in Waiting” /”The Agaiambo E” ( – Tighar’s first intended aircraft recovery project, long before they started looking for Earhart.)

They tried to push their way into the Travis Air Museum’s project and independently visited PNG in Spring 1986 to progress “the largest and most ambitious aviation archaeological operation in History”!

In the end, its the only Tighar Project Aircraft – “That has ever been recovered”, although NOT by Tighar, and NOT due to anything Tighar contributed.

Read about it here http://aviationmystery.com/index.php?topic=62.0

In 1991 in Tigar Tracks (some 6 years after its recovery survey in 1986) Tighar “gives notice to all parties” in Tighar Tracks, that it is committed to the preservation of the B-17 and will “work aggressively” to that end. It advises that the Tighar project for the recovery will be known as “Lady in Waiting” and previous references to the aircraft as “Swamp Ghost” trivialises the artefacts significance. (nothing further is done to actually recover it)

7 Projects, 30 years of collecting funds from members, the public, donors etc, and absolutely nothing to show for it, other than the Gillespie Horse Farm, (and to be fair, an excellent online resource of Earhart historical research material.)

Regards

Mark Pilkington

There is obviously a lot more to this story to be investigated by the Powers to be, but its claimed the Cherry Pickers were sitting on an area of “ungroomed” land between the main runway and the grass runway.

However there are also claims that this area had been operating as a second grass runway for the Airshow, and also that the presence of the Cherry Pickers was not part of the pilot briefing, obviously such claims and issues are a matter for the formal investigation.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12025852

Warbirds over Wanaka plane crashed on ‘ungroomed’ land

More detail has emerged of the circumstances around Saturday’s crash of a Yak 3 aircraft at the Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow.

Previous media reports have suggested the 1940s-era Soviet aircraft, piloted by Arthur Dovey, of Wanaka, was landing on the grass runway at Wanaka Airport when it hit a cherry picker.

However, aviation sources with a better view of the crash say that is incorrect.

The Otago Daily Times has been told the crash happened on the wide strip of ground between the sealed runway and the grass runway – an area of “ungroomed” land obvious from the air but not from the spectator stands at the show.

They were to be used for a new pyrotechnic display.

On the day of the crash, they were in the same position they were in at a rehearsal the previous day.

Five people working on the display were nearby and about to move to the cherry pickers when the crash happened.

Dovey had been invited to open the show after bad weather prevented a United States Air Force F-16 fighter jet being able to do that.

The show was to be Dovey’s last.

He has declined to discuss the crash with the media.

However, sources have told the ODT, that following his display, Dovey, in his three-tonne World War 2 fighter was to land on the grass runway.

Yaks are more easily controlled when landing on grass than on a sealed runway.

However, he chose to land between the runways.

Prior to the show, pilots attended a briefing where, it is claimed, their attention was not drawn to the presence of the cherry pickers.

A source told the ODT as Dovey approached the airfield, it would have been clear to airshow organisers he was not about to land on the grass runway.

He could have been told to “go around”, but that did not happen.

While Airways provides the show with communications equipment, adviser Emma Lee said yesterday the organisation did not provide air traffic control services at airshows.

“Due to their nature, airshows like this are not managed by air traffic control.

“The airshow is overseen by the airshow director.”

Dovey’s landing approach was considered by an experienced pilot to be “very fast”, so fast in fact it would normally have led to the pilot choosing to “go around”.

Because of the rough ground, the plane was also bouncing.

The Yak is a “tail dragger” and once in its landing position, the pilot has no forward vision.

One wing was ripped off the Yak where it connects to the fuselage, the fuselage itself was badly damaged, and the propeller hit the ground, causing major damage to the engine.

Both cherry pickers were badly damaged.

The Civil Aviation Authority is carrying out a safety investigation into the incident and a spokeswoman said it was likely the authority’s health and safety unit would also investigate.

Show general manager Ed Taylor declined to comment yesterday on the crash except to repeat show organisers were carrying out their own internal investigation.

He could not say when that would be completed.

The attached aerial view of Wanaka will at least provide a better understanding about where the Cherry Pickers were located, relative to the main runway and the grass runway.

Flying in to Wanaka Airport

Runway orientation is 11 and 29. The main sealed runway is 1,200m long by 30m wide, supported by a fully irrigated grass runway of 900m long by 40m wide. All itinerant VFR pilots should familiarise themselves with the Wanaka Aerodrome information which is fully detailed in the NZAIP, Vol 4.

http://www.wanakaairport.com/airfield-users/airfield-information

The ‘ungroomed ground” can be seen between the two runways, and separates the 30M wide main runway and 40M Grass runway by a width of @78M.(according to Google Earth!)

A very unfortunate accident and severe damage to the aircraft, but thankfully the pilot is unharmed and thats the main thing.

Clearly there is lessons to be learnt from this incident and the investigation report should resolve and identify the root cause.

Regards

Mark Pilkington