Just a Few Feet at a Time....

[MIflyer]

When the Germans took over France in 1940, naturally they occupied all of the airfields. But they paid no attention to the French Aviation Museum at Le Bourget Airport. They apparently considered a building with a bunch of old airplanes to not be very interesting or useful.

Some of the museum staff noticed that each day at lunch time there was not a German to be seen. And they also noted a brand new, right out of the crate, DB-601 engine, sitting on a wheeled cart.

They decided the engine would make a fine addition to the museum. So each day at lunch they would wander over to the German area and push the engine a few feet closer to the museum. I guess they figured if the engine moved only a few feet at at time it would not be noticed, and they would be less likely to be seen pushing it.

Finally, they got the engine to the museum and only needed to push it up a ramp. They strained at the task and suddenly a German officer appeared and yelled for them to halt. He came trotting up with a group of German troops and they figured their goose was cooked. But then the officer directed his troops to push the engine up the ramp into the museum, where it is to this day.

Just waiting for someone to swipe it....

 

[herman1rg]

Love to see a pic

 

[vikingBerserker]

What a cool story

 

[Tieleader]

To quote Christopher Titus -"It ain't stealing if they ain't using it!"

 

[billrunnels]

When the Germans took over France in 1940, naturally they occupied all of the airfields. But they paid no attention to the French Aviation Museum at Le Bourget Airport. They apparently considered a building with a bunch of old airplanes to not be very interesting or useful.

Some of the museum staff noticed that each day at lunch time there was not a German to be seen. And they also noted a brand new, right out of the crate, DB-601 engine, sitting on a wheeled cart.

They decided the engine would make a fine addition to the museum. So each day at lunch they would wander over to the German area and push the engine a few feet closer to the museum. I guess they figured if the engine moved only a few feet at at time it would not be noticed, and they would be less likely to be seen pushing it.

Finally, they got the engine to the museum and only needed to push it up a ramp. They strained at the task and suddenly a German officer appeared and yelled for them to halt. He came trotting up with a group of German troops and they figured their goose was cooked. But then the officer directed his troops to push the engine up the ramp into the museum, where it is to this day.

Just waiting for someone to swipe it....

Great story. I have a feeling acts of kindness like this took place frequently but was never reported.

 

[MIflyer]

Some years ago a light twin being used to smuggle drugs landed in a remote swampy field in the wee hours. The airplane became bogged down and the smuggler abandoned it. A local homebuilder was working on a Pitts Special and saw a very cheap way to acquire a suitable engine for his project. Lack of logbooks would not matter for a homebuilt project. One night he went to the field with a pickup and an engine hoist and removed one of the engines, complete with prop, figuring that no one would know and few would even care.

It was only later in the privacy of his hangar that he examined his prize and realized that the twin had been equipped with counter-rotating engines, a lefty and a righty. He had gotten the lefty and it turned the wrong way for his Pitts.

 

[Gnomey]

Great stories!