At Mail Call, Wayne Thompson was heard saying to Derek Wakefield
WT> That would be nice, there's a definite shortage of these big birds.
WT> I've seen one up close at the Air Force museum at Dayton, and they
WT> are absolutely AMAZING to walk around!  They are HUGE!  And
WT> beautiful in a brutish, cigar-tube sort of way...
     Yep, cigar would be a good way to describe it. A buddy of mine
used to like to use an another analogy (for the forward part of the
fuselage), but considering this is "the family channel" I'll leave
that to your imagination.
WT> I'm amazed that it wasn't turned into beer cans and cookware a long,
WT> long, time ago.
     I think it came close to being turned into such. If it hadn't
been for the efforts of a group who wanted to see it preserved...
WT> We've got a an old C-97 here at Stockton Metro Airport that I'm
WT> afraid is going to end up that way.
Ugh...horrendus fate!
WT> I really doubt that any group could keep such an aircraft airworthy
WT> anyway.  It's just too big, too complex, and too expensive to fly
WT> (unless your group happens to have the initial USAF, that is).  If a
WT> B-36 uses less than $1000.00 worth of avgas just to warm up the
WT> engines, I'd be surprised.
Agreed! I'd hate to pay the fuel bill for a bird like that. UGH!
WT> Nope...  But at least with some luck, it will still be preserved.
WT> That's something...
WT> When you find out something, let me know...  Ok???
     This is the last I heard about this (taken from a converse here
several years back.) I believe this was posted by the former moderator
here, Sarah Nunez...
---8<---[ Begin Transmission ]----
   Robert, forgive me for taking so long to reply.  I went back
through some messages I'd saved, since we'd discussed this on the echo
a year or two ago, but couldn't find those messages.  I called
Lockheed public affairs office, and here's what they told me about the
B-36:
 
   It was the last one off the production line, and named the "City of
Ft. Worth". It was used some, but not in combat.  It was displayed at
the Southwest Airport for a number of years before being brought to
GD, where it sat, awaiting the plans of a restoration group that never
materialized.  They finally brought it into a hangar, where a bunch of
GD retirees and other B-36 buffs have been restoring it.  The
restoration is basically complete, but it's  still in pieces, as it's
too big to put it together in the hanger it's in, and  they don't want
to put it back outside in the weather.  There is a museum being
planned at Alliance Airport, and they intend to put the B-36 back
together there and display it indoors, but that's a couple of years
away.
 
---8<----[ End Transmission ]-----
     And that is the last I've heard anything about this. If you have
access to the WWW you might see if anymore has been made public at the
Lockheed site.
Derek (/\)akefield
iscandar@chatter.com
... "You'll PAY To Know What You REALLY Think"
--- Blue Wave v2.12 [NR]
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