I hauled home a real WWII Airplane

If its a bunch of noice you like, my old neighbor has a few Aries or arias whichever detuned top fuel engines. Ran them on his pulling tractor. If I was closer I'd love to help out on that thing. Good luck with it man.

 

There was a Lockheed C-60A out at a local airshow today. It was neat to see one not all beat up. I really liked the tiny radio room. They even had a small telegraph in it.

 

Any new progress? I love reading and seeing your updates

thanks,
Douglas Johnson
"Skrach"
www.VividlyVintage.com

 

There has been a major turn of events this past week. The "Big Beat Up Bastard" is no longer in my possession. It is now in the hands of the Greatest Generation Aircraft Museum in FtWorth, Tx. They will be using the front section in the museum.
But, don't freak out just yet. There is more to the story than me just giving up. Last week I decided to take the plane up to the Pate Swap Meet in Ft Worth, use it as a backdrop to sell my artwork, and to let people go sit in the cockpit. I tried to be legal for once and get the permits to transport it the 300 miles up there. It was going to be over $500, so I decided to just run the gauntlet. I had parked in front of my house in the ghetto to load art into the plane. The Police Chief stops by to tell me that I was going to get a ticket for having an oversize load in front of my house. I told him what I thought of that and drug out my cut off wheel and removed the last 20 ft of the airplane. No over size load, no more jerk cops.
I then loaded the art into the remaining nose section and drove to FtWorth. I put the nose up for sale in order to raise the money to retrieve another Lodestar that I have found for sale in a far away land. The other Lodestar has NO DENTS! I'm still working on that idea.
But then I spoke to a friend of mine at the museum in Ft.Worth that just had to have the Lodestar nose. I traded him for a complete T-28 Trojan airplane. This one will be easy to make into a car, though it won't be able to haul the cargo like the Lodestar.

 

If a guy is pushing the limits, he's going to bite off more than he can chew from time to time.

Glad the front of the plane is going to a good home, and glad you were able to get a plane that's more possible to make into your dream.
Did that radial engine come with what you got in that trade?

That thing alone is awesome!! I would hang that thing up in the house for bar art.

 

I think I´d be tempted to make that Trojan into an airplane again.

 

Just went through this thread . You Sir are a talented painter. The Nose Art is WOW. Wish i was closer to you . Would like to spend a day sitting in the planes and making airplane noisies . The front landing gear makes a great cylinder for a hyd press. My Dad bulit a press out of one 40 years ago.

 

Carlysle, I was going to PM you but thought it would help others too.

When you post from your photobucket gig, as you do it you get the "direct link" code in words and letters as you create your post. To keep it simple, "stack" those links instead of letting them go where they will as you type. For example, instead of it looking to you like: hhhh:blahblahblah[431] hhhhyadda/yadda/blah432

You can make it look like:
hhhh:blahblahblah[431]
hhhhyadda/yadda/blah432

I hope it makes sense, and thanks for the pictures. FWIW, you can edit them too. Go back in and stack the pic links after the fact. To get one below the other I can just hit "enter" and the promptor drops to the next line immediately, and you can do that lines of type as well with the promtor (that flashing vertical line) touching the end of the pic link. It's really bitchin what you're up to there...

 

id like to buy that engine

 

yea id do the same.

 

x2

It would be nice to return to flying.

Last year I saw fly a North American T6, the radial engine is awesome :

 

That would make a great houseboat.

 

This Trojan could be made to fly again, but it would most likely cost more than the plane would ever be worth. It was licked by the flames of a grass fire that melted the last few feet of the wings and it melted about two feet of the tail.
The R1300 radial engine is the original engine to this plane. It will never run again- fire damage as well.

 

Let me see what all of you think about this. I have an opportunity to get another Lodestar fuselage that doesn't have any dents and would be perfect for my giant panel truck idea. I now have a T28 Trojan that is awesome in my possession that could be turned into a giant two seater. Which one would You rather see built?

Lodestar- PROS -Made in WWII,can carry lots of passengers, art work, cargo, and people can go sit in the cockpit when I'm not driving it. And it can have machine gun turrets.
CONS- its huge and will be hard to park and drive. 48ft long

T28 Trojan PROS- smaller 33ft long, can leave the radial engine on front, can be polished, can be made to look like a fighter, cheaper to build
CONS- Not a WWII era airplane,can't carry much cargo, only holds two people

 

Machine gun turrets

 

Lodestar all the way!

 

I'd vote lodestar...there seem to be a lot of single seat plane-car (or cycle-car) builds out there. The Lodestar motor home is much more useful and would get you more press.

Being WWII era and B25-ish is a huge plus.

Great thread and good work!

 

Lodestar makes more sense as a truck/camper to my way of thinking. Seems like the Trojan would be a huge two seater, but with little useable space.

 

Not sure if they have 'older' planes here, but I drove by this place on the way to St. Louis right outside Kansas City. I keep meaning to stop, but not sure if they would let you "roam around" like a junkyard.

http://www.whiteindustries.com/

Chris Nelson
Kansas

 

Lodestar!! Both would be cool, but when you load your art stuff into the Lodestar and drive to an event, you are going to be drawing people to you and they will remember you.

As for restoration of Trojan, even a good condition older airplane is VERY expensive to restore, especially if you aren't a certified aircraft mechanic.
Probably a guy without a pilots license would get more use out of a hot rod than a restored plane anyway!

 

I've located two more Lodestars today. Both airplanes are beyond rational restoration. Hopefully one of the owners will be reasonable. Neither has the engines.

 

holy ..b geesus man, you have the most forgiving wife. giver a hug.

 

Actually Outlaw thats not a bad idea.

 

Have you checked on the one at LAKEFRONT Airport in New Orleans? It kind of "lost" it's battle with Katrina. DD

 

The guy that owns the one at Lakefront won't sell it to me. He lives in Wisconsin I believe and has the engines, wings and other parts with him. He doesn't like the idea of a motor home at all.

 

Ok, I think we had all agreed that the Lodestar is a better choice for giant panel truck/car/RV. But, today I worked on the 1949 T28A Trojan. It has been stuck on my trailer since I brought it home. I'm about to build a simple two rail trailer to move it around on. I cleaned up the interior a bit. I also mounted the 1300 cubic inch radial engine back on it and put the cowlings on the engine. It looks a lot better. I still might eventually turn this one into a car. I looked inside and you could seat about 5 people in it, if I ripped out the rear seat area. There is about 3ft below the cockpit floor of wasted space. This thing is pretty big. I measured it to be 29 ft long today from tip of prop shaft to tail.

I'm still working on finding another Lodestar fuselage- or rather an owner that will part with it. I won't give up until I have another in possession.

 

I can't say I haven't had a similar idea...

 

Here is my idea as to what could be done with the plane old boring T28 Trojan. I have access to the canopy pieces and enough junk to build a ball turret and turn this thing into a TBM Avenger- kind of. The tail and nose of the Trojan are shaped very similar to an Avenger. It would be a lot easier to redo an Avenger canopy than to replace the big trojan bubble canopy. Keep in mind this is just an idea. But it would give me a machine gun turret which spells fun for the whole family.

Just lob off the wings and part of the tail feathers and we are on our way to a drivable Avenger. I chopped off the wings today so that it is only 8ft 4 in wide now- below limit. Even if this one never becomes a car it will at least be fun to tow to shows.

 

I thought of you and that plane the other day when I passed a house with a guy scrapping a 30 something foot motorhome out of the late 60's or early 70's.