I hauled home a real WWII Airplane

I may have some of the radio componets if you plan to redore this. Fenton

 

While a cool project, the LodeStar was never a bomber. At least was never built as a bomber for the military.
It started out as a civilian carrier just like a Boeing 747. Then after WWII, it was used as a troop transport, an ambulance and all round work truck, used by many countries.

Mike

 

Subscribed! Very very kickass.

 

Subscribed!!

 

Any ideas on how how you are going to get it setup to be drivable yet?

Long wheelbase early 80's motor home chassis with the belly of the plane trimmed to fit the frame or build suspension carriages front and rear and use the planes structure to carry everything?

 

You are probably thinking of the Lockheed 14 which is very similar to a Lodestar. The L-18 Lodestar was built with the military in mind. This was most certainly never a bomber, but they most certainly saw service during in WWII. This one was built in 1942- long after passenger plane production stopped, as a C-60 from the factory, just as C47s are military versions of the DC-3 from the factory. This one was used to train navigators during the war. The built for export Lockheed Hudson, which is essentially a modified Lodestar was a bomber that came out just before the US entered into the war. It was used by England, Canada and Australia etc.
But I guess saying this one is a bomber is incorrect because it never had bombay doors. I'm still happy with it just the same.

 

All of the motor home chassis are way overkill for this thing. It really doesn't weigh much at all. If I use great big old axles and super heavy tires, then we run into a big time un-sprung weight problem. That means the body wouldn't have enough weight to keep the axles from bouncing clear off of the ground. At this point, I can see only using a long steel tubing frame that flows and attaches just under the heavy duty floor joist of this plane. The rear axle probably shouldn't be much more than a 3/4 or 1 ton truck due to the lack of weight. from the body.
I was looking at the damage to the plane today and man she is rough! But then again I like an uphill battle. I have to do some serious bracing on the right side before the voyage to the Lone Star Round Up. I don't want to perform a reenactment of the Titanic breaking in half and sinking on the highway because I didn't brace it up enough.

 

I hoping to get the nose a little farther along before it goes to Austin. I'll have a day or so just before we set sail to work on it. I measured today and as crazy as this seems the three ribs on the nose are 50-1/2"" front to rear. The 3 ribs on a real B25 are 51" from the first rib to where the glass stops at the fuselage! I have to remove a little more metal from the tip of the nose and a bit more below the windscreen, but then I can start riveting the aluminum stringers that go over the nose for plexyglass to attach to. I'm hoping to get a volunteer over here to help for a day or so.

 

(On phone, will be choppy.) Your last post highlights a worry of mine, the aluminum frame being ok for flying but too weak for road stress. Turning into driveways, etc and torsion stress could be problems. Bend rates for steel and aluminum differ & could cause cracks, etc in the aluminum.

Plane was designed to have weight supported by wings most of the time or wheels on landing. Fuselage frame may be weak in some areas as a result.

But you are right on unsprung and overall weight too.

A medium motor home on basically a big pickup/van frame would be what I'd look for. I had one with a 440/727 and wheelbase was equal to crew cab full sized pickup. Had duals on back. Had just 60k miles too. That sort of thing is around, especially with a bad/rotting interior, for cheap.

Extend the motor home frame and keep it stiff, cross-braced everywhere. Put in mounting subframe to match airplane frame. Attach airplane frame with some rubber mounts. Try to mount where wings or wheels were.

Adjust springs with standard pickup/van parts until you are happy.

 

That is a very good point. The torsional stress on the fuselage would be more than it is designed for. I better make sure the steel frame is as rigid as possible and that the fuselage floats on the frame on rubber bushings. Glad you mentioned that. I still have a 30+ ft long 1970's Dodge motor home chassis with a 440/727 in it. The frame is fairly narrow-36" or so. It might do the trick and the 19.5" wheels would work too. It has straight axle that could be drilled out for weight. The rear axle is a Dana 70. The frame would have to be seriously modified to get it under the floor of the plane, but it might work. If I boxed it in, it would probably give me the torsional strength that I will need. I've always been an airbag hater, but bags might be the solution to the over kill springs of the motor home. Plus the air could be let out of the rear to make loading the plane easier.

 

That motor home sounds like a great starting place. Work backwards from the plane mounting points to the frame & redo frame to match. If springs are leaf type you can tailor them to weight. Or see if heavy pickup springs can be made to work.

Lots of heavy duty frame welding ahead. But it should work well.

Looking forward to the B25 nose!

 

Here is another quick crappy sketch that I did of a chassis idea. The plane currently has 4 long beams that are about 8inches or so tall that run under the floor of the fuselage. Those beams have tons of braces attached them for strength. All of the ribs of the fuselage attach to those beams along the sides. My thought is, a new steel frame could be put in under the floor that will attach to the fuselage with rubber body mounts mounted above the steel frame. The steel frame would be boxed and it could have lots of ex-bracing for additional stiffening. The front suspension could be an I-beam axle that is cushioned on airbags. I could use a wishbone in the front so that the axle can have a lot of movement when crossing into driveways so that the torsion isn't transmitted onto the fuselage as much(Model T technology).
The rear suspension would be very similar. The engine would be mid mounted so that the weight would be distributed to the rear to help hold it down. There is enough room for a big engine about mid ship under the floor in the cargo hold. The cargo hold has doors that open to access the engine, and the plywood floors also pull up. But the space under the floor decreases rapidly the farther back you go. These are crappy sketches, but this is only a preliminary design.

 

Frame is just about exactly what I was picturing. What would you make the wishbone mount from, a trailer ball? Should work if strong enough.

What is the motor to rear end distance on the motor home and can you keep it the same? It might make some things easier.

 

The wheel base on a 30 ft or so motor home is only going to be around 18 ft or so. They have a LOT of frame behind the rear wheels. I bet I could just slide the rear axle back several feet on the frame. The engine would have to be moved back on the chassis substantially as well. But, if I stripped the motor home frame down to just the rails, I think I might be able to get them to slide under the floor of the plane if they went in from the nose first. I would have to remove the bulkhead under the cockpit, but that wouldn't be to hard.
For the ball on the end of a giant wishbone, I could probably use a new tie rod end off of an 18 wheeler.
I'm still on the lookout for another junk Lodestar that I could buy the tail off of instead of spending a lot of time rebuilding the damage inflicted by the wrath of Khan to the tail of mine.
The guy with the Lodestar that was submerged in salt water in the New Orleans Lakefront Airport won't sell it because he doesn't want me to use it for parts. I suppose I can understand that.

 

I've spent the last few days getting the Lodestar ready to travel to the Lone Star Round Up in Austin. I did some work on the nose and finally put some floors boards in her so people cane walk around in it. But, I found some rather disheartening damage to the plane. I found many areas with a lot more corrosion than I had expected. The tail is so badly damaged that trying to rebuild the tail is not a good idea. I have no choice now but to either buy another tail section or come up with an entirely different fuselage! I am not happy. But that is what you get when you try to save an airplane that was submerged in salt water.

 

Pretty cool, however, the Lodestar was a cargo/troop carrier, not a bomber. A short to medium range plane and was unarmed.

 

Since this is now a land-based vehicle, why can't you rebuild the tail with wood, fabric, steel, Fiberglass, etc? Weight is not so important as when it was a flying machine.

 

We had determined that much earlier on in the thread- Venturas and Hudsons are based on the Lodestar.

 

You would have to see this beast in person to truly understand the scale of making a new tail. It is 20+ foot long and very intricate. I found that the entire tail section has about a 3degree twist from when it was shoved around in the junkyard. Aluminum doesn't unbend the way steel car bodies can. I spent all day working on the nose and just kept finding more damage as I dug. I have a line on another Lodestar fuselage and that might just be the direction that I will be going. Remove what is salvageable from this one to rework the other one that hasn't been nuked.

 

Here is the work that I got done today. I made the nose look more like a B25 yesterday and I painted the simple nose art today.

 

That thing is cool! the glass nose looks great.

 

the nose art is perfect

 

carlisle1926's,

Before you go too far, I would suggest that you look into how you are going to insure it when you are ready to put it on the road.

I dont think that you will be able to get a "classic car " insurance company to insure it. The next step would to get a "passenger" car policy. But, if it has more than 5 wheels or weighs more than 6000 lbs, you will have to get commercial plates on it (Ma. law ,yours may differ)

 

It wouldn't have more than 4 wheels. We can get away with just about anything here in Texas.

 

Good running ALF V12 for sale in St. Louis. Real cool dual distributors, 24 plugs. Would be cool in that tHat thing.

 

Here are some pictures from out at the Lone Star Round Up of the plane. People were having a blast sitting in the cockpit. I posted in a new thread how much I appreciate all of you coming out and climbing aboard the plane, but I'm going to say it here too. I was pretty down about getting those three tickets on the way out, but those little $2 entry fees really helped me out. It was awesome to see the look on everyone's faces when they rounded the corner and saw the plane. There was nothing like seeing the kids sit up there in the cockpit having a good time. So many veterans came up and told me how much they liked seeing the beat up old plane.
I have to make this giant motor home/ panel truck thing happen now somehow. I've located several other Lodestar junkers that would be a lot more rational to convert. Now all I need is funding and a pile of time.
Jason Barnett

 

I have access to several American LaFrance V12's here in Houston. I do love those engines, but they are very troublesome. The distributor caps are well over $400 a piece! I just did a valve job in one a month ago! They are really a work of art.
A friend of mine has several army surplus 6cyl 707cubic inch Mack truck gas engines that would make a heck of racket, but they are big and heavy. At this point, I need to be worrying about coming up with a better fuselage.

 

Wow that has got to be the best story ever for Oh It just followed me home! Just the history of it!! Great save!!

 

wish i could have seen it in person today. can't wait to see pictures of it finished.

 

Jason - thanks for the chat this weekend at Roundup. The other guys I was with really enjoyed talking B-25's with you. Great artwork in your booth.