B-17s expected to be grounded

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/coming-airworthiness-directive-expected-to-ground-all-airworthy-b-17s/?MailingID=1314

 

Sounds really expensive. 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

The type is around 80 years old; DC-3 vintage, so I expect some wear and tear is to be expected.

[Blackwater 53393]

Hopefully, they will be repaired and returned to the flight line!!

 

A piece of history that should be preserved to remind us of what we’ve fought to protect!!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

2 hours ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

The type is around 80 years old; DC-3 vintage, so I expect some wear and tear is to be expected.

That's about my age and my wing spars haven't been worth a damn for a decade or more.

[Subdeacon Joe]

I hate to say it, but I think pretty soon (10 years or less) we're going to come to a point where the warbird community is going to have to say, "If we want to save these wonderful ships we have to stop flying them."

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

4 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

That's about my age and my wing spars haven't been worth a damn for a decade or more.

You and me both Pard!

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

2 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

I hate to say it, but I think pretty soon (10 years or less) we're going to come to a point where the warbird community is going to have to say, "If we want to save these wonderful ships we have to stop flying them."

 

Or, expensive as it would be, build one from scratch.

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

17 minutes ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

 

Or, expensive as it would be, build one from scratch. 

 

 

 

Better than having one go down. Didn't one crash and burn in the Central Valley between Fresno and Modesto a few years ago?

 

Some of the fighters seem to be 90 percent new parts anyway, "Yeah, we have the control stick, one landing gear strut, and half the engine cowling, so we're going to restore it."

 

 

 

 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

Many years, (OK Decades) ago, I was at the Calgary Stampede Parade when Douglas Bader was Parade Marshal. The Air Cadets had built a 2/3 scale Spitfire, I was told they were going to try to get a Certificate of Airworthiness for. 

Around the world, there are any number of organizations restoring/rebuilding or building Warbirds from the First and Second World Wars, and now, even the Korean Police Action.

 

Favourites of mine are the ones doing Mosquitos, "The Wooden Wonder! and my Dad's aircraft, the B-25 Mitchell.

[Trailrider #896]

"And just when you're about to be a general you'll find,

         The engine coughs, the wings fall off,

And you will never mind!" - Oscar Brand

[watab kid]

im starting to agree with subdeacon on this , ive enhjoyed the fact that you could see them at local air shows and i ebnjoyed seeing them buzz my office a couple decades ago when they were here for our air show yet , i dont want them to all crash and nothing be left to see and enjoy in the future , 

 

i was at a hanger dance a while back in the cities - they had a couple vintage aircraft that are on permanent display there , part of the evening was getting to hear them fired up and rev the engines , no flight involved [granted it was at night ] but it was a fun experience 

[Dubious Don #56333]

One of the groups on FB I subscribe to is specific for preserving B-17's. It's a wing spar issue. If I remember correctly, the wing spar was extruded out of a specific alloy on mandrels and is tapered for outside dimensions but inside as well. They appear capable of making new spars using this same approved design. and are in the process, it appears, of doing just that.