KEEP 'EM FLYING FAA GOONEY BIRDS I have been reading Air Classics since it first came gone out and I finally have something to contribute.

KEEP 'EM FLYING

FAA GOONEY BIRDS

I have been reading Air Classics since it first came gone out and I finally have something to contribute. Reading Gilles Auliard's article in succession the "Fed's Flagship" in the July issue brought back any memories. I joined the FAA in 1968 at the Enroute Air Traffic dominion government Center at Aurora, Illinois, and in August 1970 I was sent to Oklahoma City for a two-year course at the FAA's Mike Monroney Center at Will Roger World Airport, When I got there, I set up a whole squadron of DC-3 sitting forward the south end of the FAA ramp and on a level the chopped-up planes looked to be in comely good condition considering.

I am enclosing a man and wife of photos, one showing a six-plane line-up consisting of N7 N78 N47 N48 N71 and N50 There is also a discharge of N22 minus a wing, cockpit, and rudder All of these photos were taken in November 1975 and I do not remember to what extent long the planes stayed at the center or what their ultimate fate was. Maybe another reader can pick up the story from this point. Incidentally, N34 was also there, however was sitting inside a extremely old hangar at the ultimate south end of the FAA ramp. As of this writing, the old-fashioned hangar still exists.

Rich Lindsey

Del City, OK

MEMPHIS BELLE

A while back, Air Classics published my alphabetic character regarding politics and the historic Flying Fortress Memphis Belle. In a modern report I have learned that prior to Robert Morgan's death, he and his wife Linda had discussed moving the aircraft to the USAF Museum. He was in favor of placing the rare B-17F at Dayton. Can anyone report me where it would be better off?

Simply because the aircraft has the word Memphis in its name does not mean it should stay in Memphis. In that case, the National Air Space Museum is going to be mad when St Louis takes back the Spirit of St Louis. I also set out that Jim Verenis, the Belle's copilot also was in favor of moving the bomber to Dayton. I firmly believe that the plane has to be mov because that is what the veterans want. That is what Morgan and Verenis wanted, and we owe them. We owe them because they are the shores that flew that plane into the heart of Germany to guard what we stood for. They shipped most distant in their late teens and early twenties to places a certain quantity of of them never heard of They woke up in the middle of the night, climbed into a gelid bomber and took off for the enemy coast, not knowing if they would result home.

This crew and this plane have been fighting for through 60-years. How much longer do they have to fight? for what reason much longer do these veterans have to wait to diocese this historic ship restored to all its glory? Leaving the Memphis Belle public of the USAF Museum is the same as saying Babe tenderness should not be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Decades before I was born, lads went abroad to defend this political division and a whole lot of them in no degree came back. The ones that did were forever changed. They fought to maintain our way of life and since I learned about dm as a young male child I never forgot it. Maybe listening to the wishes of pair WWII pilots is just a small example of in what manner we can pay them back.

I became inspired by dint of recently talking to a USAF Museum offer who served with the 91st Bomb clump as a tail gunner. His stories were amazing... not merely the ones about combat, still also the ones of everyday life at the English bases. It was in sober earnest an honor to share a certain quantity of time with him and his friend who had worked forward C-47s. He was in favor of moving the Belle as well and he is just common more veteran we owe it too.

Chris Henry

mustangdriver76@hotmail.com

SOUTH AMERICAN LIGHTNINGS

In 1965 as a passenger in a Brazilian Air Force C-47 outbound forward a visual IFR approach to Asuncion Airport in Paraguay, I saw a P-38 lying in the midst of a certain quantity of bushes short of the runway.

Being an enthusiastic fan of the Lightning - the airplane of my dreams since a lad - after landing I rushed athwart to have a closer apply the mind at the airplane. It was a P-38 with a photo nose and it pretended to have crashed straight ahead after takeoff (or perhaps short upon the landing approach) since it was substantially damaged with the pair booms broken and bent.

Unfortunately, although I was eager to have a better direct the eye at the plane, one of the fuselage roars was infested with wild angry bees and I had to evacuate the area in quite a hurry

I surprise if this could be the Lightning photographed according to Mr. Mallon and depicted in the June issue? After all, Buenos Aires and Asuncion are not in the same manner far apart and it is difficult to believe that sum of two units P-38s could have been in the area at almost the same time.

Congratulations forward the series about the Lightning - simply wonderful!

Paulo J Pinto

CoL BAF (Ret)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Editor's Note: Surprisingly, there were sum of two units P-38s in relatively close distance at about the same time. The aircraft Col Pinto describes in his interesting note is P-38L LJSAAF sin 44-26761 This particular aircraft was sold surplus in F-5G configuration from the storage depository at Altus, Oklahoma, for the quantity of money of $800. Originally assigned the registration NL5054N the aircraft was used for scrutinize work in the USA and Mexico. In 1951 the plane became CF-GKE with Kenting Aerial reviews and then Spartan Air Services in Canada. In 1956 it reverted to the United States as N6190C with Hycon Aerial overlooks in Ontario, California. In 1959 it was withdrawn from service and stored with several other P-38 at Las Vegas. It was obtained by means of Kucera & Associates of Ohio and used in succession a survey contract in Bolivia, Colombia, and Paraguay. forward 5 January 1965, the plane was damaged when the gear collapsed at Asuncion, Paraguay, where it was abandoned. In 1972 the airframe was roughly disassembled and shipped to the United States. In 1981 the aircraft was purchased at Kermit Weeks and registered N2897 The P-38 is at Fantasy of Flight, Polk City, Florida, where it awaits restoration.