The world of aviation preservation tenders no guarantees as to continued survival.The world of aviation preservation tenders no guarantees as to continued survival. During January, four now-rare Martin 4-0-4 Martinliners at Stennis, Mississippi, were scrapped on Sam Stewart. The airport had ordered that the planes had to be "removed" within 30 days. Sam, a now passing 4-0-4 owner and long-time Martin operator, got the piece of work to cut up the veterans (N969M N40407 N40413 and N40424) All the aircraft had protracted and interesting histories and all still had airline interiors. Fortunately, Kermit Weeks managed to save single in kind complete fuselage and had it tradeed to his facility while Carl Scholl got sum of two units forward fuselages (one going to Yanks Air Museum) and Sam salvaged engines, fulcrums and other usable items for Yanks. The fuselage in our photos started life with Eastern Air Lines forward 29 October 1952 as N483A and after being retired in 1962 went by the and of numerous other owners including Southern Airways and Marco Island Airways. Now registered N969M the aircraft, and the three others, was flown into Stennis during 1989 for a propos sale to a Latin American airline however this never went through. In the humid climate, corrosion quickly wager into the airframes. Examining the forward fuselage at Aero Trader, we rest Marco Island paperwork and unruffled plastic cups with the airline's logo Copyright Challenge Publications Inc. May 2002 |
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