I hauled home a real WWII Airplane

This is awesome! And you seriously have some cool "stuff" laying around your yard!

 

Geez! This thread is depressing for me. My father was chief test pilot and A&P on most of the Dee Howard 500 and Super Ventura conversions back in the fifties. Many top corporations and celebrities owned them. They were the most luxurious and fastest private planes available then. My dad died in a Howard crash while testing in 1960. But I had the great fun of many flight hours in customer planes as a kid and playing in the war planes waiting for conversion at Howard's hangars in San Antonio.

I always thought I would own one some day. But LOTS of those planes were downed and burned by "tree top flyers" in the drug trade. They had huge payload capacity and were damn fast for a "bus". The last configurations of the "corporate" conversions ran superchargers, methanol injection and "jado" booster rockets for short field operations.

The Howard conversions were not just cosmetic - the Super 500 and Super Ventura fuselage was stretched and narrowed. The wings were all new and (if I recall) the engines were 2800's with P-51 four blade props .

I just sink when I see one of old birds rotting away somewhere. But good luck with your project anyway.

 

Here is a Howard 500 conversion. This plane was once basically a Lodestar that Howard stretched and made the cabin pressurized. Turn the speakers up for this one!<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Oeq3OO9fXTY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

I like your ideas.

 

There is a B-24 fuselage that was made into a trailer post war in Australia that I would kill for...

B-24 42-41182

http://380th.org/HISTORY/PARTV/41-79/42-41182_files/Ridder.htm



Seeing this one really surprised me. I like it.

 

This link provides the deregistration information, near the bottom of the page. Current registration at the top.

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N43WT

 

Cool link Kramer,
My dad's old 46 Bellanca is still registered N86919

 

maybe an inline 6 with split exhaust on each side, and keep your dual throttles?

not sure you could keep the set-it-n-forget-it throttles by hand, but 2 motors would sound like 2 motors.

there are guys running belt CVT drives in offroad buggies with 400+ hp, but the buggies are < 2,500 pounds. with enough gearing and one on each side, sounds possible.

 

just one question..how the hell do you get it off the trailer?

 

Man this guy is one krazzy dude.

 

large belly tanker ...................

 

That's exactly where I got the info. DD

 

Fly it off..................

 

Don Garlits has a Navy fighter on a stick that took flight during a hurricane the week of 9/11.
He had/has a nice old guy the cut out every warped panel and riveted new panels on, and they put that jet up in a repaired stand.
It can be done!

 

When it's ready for wheels up I'll be your wingman...... This is to cool

 

Revcons are FWD similar to the GMC but better and way cheaper. Late ones(80's) have 454's and heavier running gear.

 

How stable would it be on three wheels or are you going to go with a real low center of gravity?

 

Just don't be prepared to find repair parts easily for the damn air suspension at the rear. I decided to quit trying a few years back. I'd rather get custom master and slave cylinders for a crane bored/sleeved/rebuilt for a '50's FWD chassis, FourWheelDrive like Oshkosh and Marmon Herrington, than to deal with that motorhome bastard child.
They drive OK and Humpty Dumpty would've been proud to have broken one of them instead.

 

Thats pretty awesome!

<---- USAF Aircraft structural maintainer

 

It would have a low center of gravity, but I'm not sure the 3 wheeled idea is the best idea in my life. i might have to give in to a 4 wheeled vehicle.

 

like this?

 

While I agree the nose gear idea is way cool, you may want to rethink it. The link shows why there were never too many front single wheeled cars built. You would need a REALLY wide rear axle!

http://youtu.be/QQh56geU0X8

 

Good point on the nose wheel....

I am looking forward to this build

 

Re: I hauled home a real WWII Bomber Airplane
<HR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5; COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->Do you any of you have any ideas as to how I should build this rear suspension?

Check out this build link. Yeah, its a MG but the work the guy does is out of sight and he built a hell of a rear end that might be adaptable to the old bird.

http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,22422

 

That link appears to be dead.

 

here's the link:
http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,22422


How high off the ground are you planning for the bottom of the body?

 

I wish I lived closer then North Carolina, I work for the Air Force doing sheet metal work that is just what you need, all the work there that looks like a good time to me, that’s the stuff I know banging aircraft aluminum. I would help just to enjoy it. You can put a bunch of scab patch’s on it for some holes, and some parts can be drilled off by the rivets it’s not hard you will need more rivets and some blind rivets as well for the places you can’t reach with bunking bars. If you have any questions on what repairs should look like just contact me I will try and help.
Niall

 

Very cool find!

 

I would like the bottom to be about a foot off of the ground. I don't want to get high centered on the driveway of every gas station that thing will stop at.

 

I wished a lot of you on here lived closer. I could sure use the help and the knowledge. I have a pretty good understanding of the riveting processes, but complete lack of the tools and experience. There has to be someone in the Houston area that could help out with the patches.