A-26 Restoration Almost Ready For Flight

[MIflyer]

From the EAA:

This A-26 belongs to Kermit Weeks and was damaged in South Florida by Hurricane Andrew. It has been restored by Aero trader in Chino CA. It had a glass nose but now has a 6 gun hard nose. It is almost ready for its first post-restoration flight and is expected to be at Oshkosh this year.

 

[BlackSheep]

From the EAA:

This A-26 belongs to Kermit Weeks and was damaged in South Florida by Hurricane Andrew. It has been restored by Aero trader in Chino CA. It had a glass nose but now has a 6 gun hard nose. It is almost ready for its first post-restoration flight and is expected to be at Oshkosh this year.

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I've always loved the lines of the A-26, simply beautiful. My fave and I should post it as my fave "bad ass" is the A-26k with wingtip tanks and camo finish….
I crashed and burned in my last attempt to relate a story as true (yb-40 vs p-38 lol) but dare I ask, anyone remember the story of the "gray ghost"?

 

[manta22]

When I moved to Tucson, AZ around 1970, there were A-26s parked at the Tucson Aviation Center, with various different noses and all were painted flat black. They were owned by Allied Aircraft and all were for sale, $14,000 apiece and $19,000 in fly-away condition. Yeah... like the Ferrari Superfast that I could have bought for $6800 back in 1969.

 

[BlackSheep]

When I moved to Tucson, AZ around 1970, there were A-26s parked at the Tucson Aviation Center, with various different noses and all were painted flat black. They were owned by Allied Aircraft and all were for sale, $14,000 apiece and $19,000 in fly-away condition. Yeah... like the Ferrari Superfast that I could have bought for $6800 back in 1969.

In the 1980s, I was a high school student in Phoenix, Az and remember my mom, who collected state taxes for the Aeronautics Division of the state department of revenue telling me that sitting in a Chandler airport were three C-47/DC-3s declared abandoned and available to the first person to pay the $2500(ish) tax liens. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't stay awake a few nights trying to convert my $4/hr pt job into the money for one or all. Hindsight being 20/20, I'm sure , especially with inside help, something could have been done to make them mine, but I was raised to walk the straight and narrow, for better or worse, lol.

 

[GrauGeist]

dare I ask, anyone remember the story of the "gray ghost"?

That A-26 (43-39427) aparently was used as a drug runner, so the stories are true.

 

[special ed]

The New Orleans Lakefront Airport for a number of years in the 70s or 80s had a B-25 and DC-3 abandoned. The DC-3 was eventually used in the Bond movie "Live and Let Die" as I took pictures of it and some of the others used in the airport scenes. The Cessna 120/140 was actually three planes painted alike. They came from Pennsylvania and been in the floods earlier that year and flew with special permits. The Piper Tri-pacer in the hangar scene did not have an engine and used corrugated cardboard painted black to look like fins. The scene where the car lands on the wing of the DC-3 had to be shot twice because in the first take, it did not stay on the wing but slid off.

 

[BlackSheep]

That A-26 (43-39427) aparently was used as a drug runner, so the stories are true.

That's what I read and that when it went legit, a couple of DEA agents who used to chase it recognized it. I mentioned my mother having collected taxes on airplanes in Az in the '80s in another post. She would often talk about visiting small strips in Southern Arizona looking for planes/owners that were behind and often these planes were found with suspicious holes in the bottom. One owner/operator mentioned it's use to drop sandwiches to the fire fighters, but, he may have been a liar.

 

[MIflyer]

There was a "Fish Bowl" Canberra and a Jet Provost abandoned at Melbourne FL airport and put up for bids a few years back. The Valiant Air Command got the Canberra and hauled it up to Titusville. Last time I looked the Jet Provost was still at MLB.