Vintage warplane dealer enjoys soaring prices

LA Times ^ | June 23, 2008 | Martin Zimmerman

[jazusamo]

Provenance Fighter Sales is benefiting from growing interest in WWII-era aircraft.

The World War II-era P-38 fighter made an emergency landing on a Greenland ice cap in July 1942 while on a flight from Maine to England. The aircraft eventually was buried under a layer of ice and snow more than 200 feet thick.

[jazusamo]

Yikes...The parts that were used off her had to have had a lot of work put into them.

[Jmouse007]

Please thank your dad for his service. We owe him and his buddies a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. By the way tell him I love the 8th Army Air Force’s insignia, that 8 ball with wings is classic!

[Captain Rhino]

...were even given werk numbers by Messerschmitt (more properly EADS) that picked up in sequence where the war-build -262s stopped.

LMAO!!

[Captain Rhino]

Thank you for your kind words.

[tanknetter]

At what point of rebuilding does it cease to be a restoration, and becomes a replica?

That's ultimately a personal opinion, along the lines of the "family heirloom" hatchet with the head that's been replaced four times and the handle that's been replaced six.

There are folks out there claiming "restorations" when all they're doing is salvaging data plates and a few pieces of a wreck.

Look at the USS Constitution up in Boston. Depending on which figures you follow only about 10-15% of the ship is original and maybe 20-25% dates from its service during the War of 1812.

[Little Ray]

I’ve flown in a B-17; an Me-262 would be great, too!

[Little Ray]

I’m glad they don’t use the Jumos. I read, somewhere, that they have a flight lifetime of 10 hours before they have to be rebuilt!

[stefanbatory]

that is quite accurate. There was a cutaway of an actual Jumo-004 at the school where I got my A&P. If you look at the materials that engine was made of with a metalurgist’s eye (I’ve helped my father in his scrap business since I was 8 years old) you will see that the the hot section of that engine was built from the same material that a cast iron stove or boiler is made from. no fire brick, though...

[Old Professer]

One P-38 found under 500 feet of ice and snow after fifty years and another one turns up on the beach exposed by the rising sea levels caused by global warming, I guess.