wmaxt said:
I have a Question: How many restored Aircraft (flying/flyable) are still out there. I know this is a far reaching question but for instance it's often quoted that there are 7 P-38s that are flyable. I've seen 5 personally and know of several others. Let me limit it to these 10 for now. No P-51s because there are so many I'm limiting this to more rare cases.
Aircraft Qty I've seen Qty I've heard about
P-38 5 8
F4U 10 14
bf-109 3 5
FW-190 0 3
B-29 1 Almost 3 2 are being refurbished
Spitfires 3 5
me-262 0 0
B-26 0 1
Zero 1 1
Hurricane 0 0
Any I've left off are time/space (mossie, Lancs for example) feel free to put them into your posts too.
Sometimes it depends on the sources as to how many of each there are left.
P-38, somewhere in the range of 7-10. The CAF P-38 "Scatterbrain Kid II" is still in pieces, but will someday probably be flyable again. Lefty Gardner's "White Lightning" is allegedly going to be rebuilt as well (Wheels up landing in a field after both engines failed after takeoff). There is one in our museum and at least 2-3 more in Chino. USAF Museum has one as well, don't know the flying status of that one.
F4U- I have seen the total of around 30, if you count The Brewster F-3A and the Goodyear FG-1 models. I have seen recent pictures with formations of 10. There is a "Gathering of the Corsairs" once a year here in the states, but I am not sure where. There is one flyable in Chino at Planes of Fame (POF).
Bf-109- I know our museum was supposed to get one a while back, but it ended up getting sold with the Hurricane that we did have in our museum. There are about 10, that I have heard, if you count the Ha-II 12-Mil models. Another static model is at POF. They also have the HA-II in restoration right now there.
FW-190- I have no info on that one, but I do know that there is one at the Champlin fighter museum. Don't know it's current status.
B-29- There is currently only one that flies, the CAF B-29 "Fifi". It took the CAF several years to find and when they did, it was that one and a number of others that were being used for target practice out at China Lake! I have not heard of any restorations to flyable status, but the Smithsonian just did a ground up restoration of the "Enola Gay" for static display. The other atomic B-29, "Bockscar" is in the USAF museum in Ohio. It is inside, so I doubt it has flown in many years. There is a B-50A fuselage at POF on static display.
Spitfire- The numbers vary wildly, but I have heard around 50! We have a Mk.XIV in our museum, there are three flyable ones at POF as well, Mk.IXe, Mk.XIV and PR Mk.XIX. I also was told of a couple in Denver including one of the rare two-seaters.
Me-262- I don't think there are any original ones still flying, and I think the 5 that were mentioned earlier in this thread are the replicas that are being made with the original plans and an example aircraft. They are being built true to spec though, so do they count, I say yes. Their site is at
http://www.stormbirds.com and they have a COOL site!!!
B-26- I have heard one, but I know that the French restored one a number of years ago, whether it is flyable or not, I don't know. The USAF museum has one, but I don't think it flies. That one is pretty rare.
Zero- I know personally of at least 2, with a third one going to be restored. We have one in our museum, a Mitsubishi built A6M3-22, but it has parts of other Zeroes, we believe due to some idiosyncracies with this particular bird. Chino has another one, A6M5 Zeke 52. Both of these fly. Additionally, there is one that has been in pieces in our museum that is being sold. It will most likely be restored to flyable condition. The buyer is unknown and wants to maintain privacy. Rumors are rampant, but few really know.
Huricane- One of my personal favorites! I know of at least 2 that fly. One used to be in our museum, but was sold to a Canadian buyer. Will that buyer keep it flyable is unknown. POF has one in Chino as well, Mk.X. I saw at least one fly in England as well. So I know that the IWM has at least one. New Zealand has at least one as well. I have heard there are about 6, but there may be more than that.
That is what I know. Others may have more info. I am hoping to get out to Chino sometime this week or after the new year to check it out and report back. There are 2 museums there worth checking out, POF and Yanks. If you want to see their collection online, check out;
http://www.planesoffame.org
and
http://www.yanksair.com
Whew!