Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Wildchild]

And they build new parts for these planes too. Remember the P-38 Glacer girl? They had to build new parts for almost everything on the airplane. Which means it's possible to build new parts for the P-51. And yes I do know how long certain stuff takes. When I ment easy, I ment the usual time it takes to restore a plane which can be anywhere from 5 months to 20 yrs. And yes I have helped a friend of mine restore his plane. It was a Mooney M-20E and we had to rebuild the tail and refurbish it at a farm were it crashed some 20 yrs ago. We trucked in a new tail and it took us 2 hours to place it on the plane. Then we went through all the flight equipment and checked for spare damage were there was none, and we managed to repair the undercarriage in a week. From there we flew it to the local airport were it took us 5 months to clean it up.

Now I understand that restoring an airplane takes time, of which some people have alot of and some people do not. It also depends on the type of airplane and the damage the airplane has taken.

P.S. In may, BBD revived a new owner who was flying the airplane. Since he only got it a month ago, I doubt that he will sell wreckage for a quarter if the price he paid for it.

[Wildchild]

 I repeat, an emergency landing is not the same as a nose first crash into the ground- imagine the stresses the fuselage has been through- even if you did manage to straighten it to a degree it would be full of stress fractures. I think it is you that does not understand the situation.

Of course the airframe would have to be rebuild. Who would just straighten out a wrecked fuslage and never check for crash damage?!?!?!?!??!? What did you think I was talking about...?

[razor1uk]

  I suppose restoring/sorting through this collection of 'recently split' parts is going to be somewhat easier than say from those having spent 75+ years in partially acidic soil (anodic/corrosive reaction?), that is then dug up and used as a template for new parts where/when able; or re-using restored parts where allowed.

  I reccomend if you can locate a copy, 'The Forgotten Bomber' - about the only (at the mo) Bristol Blenhiem (although Its partially a Bollingbrook too) thats flying; actually the current one is the second restored flyable Blenhiem. Because the first one got written off by an mature comercial pilots ego & lack of experience in old birds. (I don't mean to suggest that his wife doesn't have a good time par-ce...)

[Thunda]

This is going to be my last comment on this, but.....

"Thunda, I don't think you understand how easy it could be to repair."

You said this- what is that supposed to mean then? My point is, the basic airframe will never fly again- unless some miracle has happened, it will be full of stress fractures from the impact- the end. Sure, some of the parts can be re-used- Ive never argued this. You cant compare Glacier Girl to this as that was buried in the ice for years after a relativley low speed wheels up landing, so no impact related stress fractures. The same with the salvaged Fw190 that was sitting in the sea- no impact to the airframe- no stress fractures- simple.

Im sorry if English isnt your first language, but this:
   
"Of course the airframe would have to be rebuild. Who would just straighten out a wrecked fuslage and never check for crash damage?!?!?!?!??!? What did you think I was talking about...?"
 
doesnt make sense- one minute its an easy repair, next you arent going to repair the fuselage. So which is it? Are you suggesting repairing the airframe or salvaging parts? My simple (and obvious) point: Salvage parts- yes, no problem. Attempt to rebuild the airframe- if not impossible, then extremely unlikely, and not commercially viable. Someone might get a new airframe, bolt some of the salvaged parts from the crash to it, and call it "Big Beautiful Bird" but it will not be the same aircraft. As Le0ne has already said, If you want a plane in airworthy status you can only use parts that can be accepted. The reason for the relative high number of airworthy p-51 is the availability to spare parts an all aluminium frame. As the aluminium airframe is the heart of the aircraft, and will not be in a recoverable state without replacing 99% of the material, then I do not accept that this aircraft can be 'easily repaired'.

[HansHansen]

I doubt that he will sell wreckage for a quarter if the price he paid for it.

i doubt that he can sell it for 5% of the price

sorry wildchild, but thunda is right.

most (99.5%) parts can never be used again.

its cheaper to "sell" the rest and then buy a new P-51 than restoring a crashed p-51 from scratch. take 20.000 hours to restore it, multiplicated with 100€ per hour mechanics + a bit material and you already need 2.000.000€ (without engine, avionics, etc) . the price for mustang is 1-2 million €, its cheaper and available right now

[Dark Apostle]

Insurance payout for the win?

[Wildchild]

Once again it depends how much time and money a person has. And when I ment easy, for the Finial time, it could be "easy" , but that depends on how much of the airplane they can rebuild. And if they cannot rebuild a certain section, I'm positive they will build a completely new part. In one of the Warbird Digest, it had a story of Mormans Mustang and it listed the kind of damage that the plane took (once she hit the center of the interstate the pilot hit full left ruder which saved his life, but it tore the wings off and the fuslage was twisted) and it listed everyone who could build certain parts of the Mustangs and together could build a full scale replica.

I'm positive she will be repaired because for 1 she is a very famous mustang, 2 the owner had bought the mustang a month ago, 3 he paid 2 million for the plane and probably wants to get his money's worth, 4 she is possible to restore and 5, no Warbird enthuist whould scrap a restorable airplane.

[Thunda]

You are talking yourself around in circles now. You keep going on about this forced landing on the interstate- that has no bearing on this crash. Yes, it was a famous mustang, and as I said, someone may well build another and call it "Big Beautiful Bird" but it will not be the same airframe.

You are obviously not going to admit you are wrong, wildchild, so lets just end this now.

Obviously you must have some information no-one else does- lets just be happy no-one was hurt, and see what happens.......

[Dark Apostle]

Okay gents, while it's been rather chilled in regards to the response for and against, Im going to lock the thread as there is nowhere left to go for it apart from the obvious discussion of what can be done about the airframe, which by all means continue in a new thread if you all feel the need to .