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Re: Greenland P-38's

Posted by Dan Jones on Wed Nov 06, 2002 07:37:24 PM

In reply top Re: Greenland P-38's posted by Chris Hinch on Wed Nov 06, 2002 06:32:56 PM

: Isn't the key problem that the restoration of Glacier Girl
: cannot solve is the unkbnown state of the remaining aircr
: aft?
:
: The one B-17 (of two on the flight) that was reached was a
: pparently crushed beyond restoration. So was GG the lucky
: one, or was the B17 the unlucky one?
:
: Stats 101 was a long time ago, but of eight aircraft, we h
: ave one intact, one destroyed. The odds would seem to be p
: retty good that there are more relatively intact aircraft,
: but that's a very small sample!
:
: How did the GG recovery team decide which of the six P38's
: to go for? Did they have radar traces that indicated she
: was the best bet (most intact), or was she one of several
: good looking traces, or are the radar returns not that acc
: urate, and they simply lucky in their choice?
:
: Hmm...
:

As I recall from the book and the video, they based the decision of which P-38 to go after on photos taken at the time of the accident, and that one was thought to be the least damaged.

Given the B-17's size and construction relative to the P-38's, it's reasonable to assume that both of them are substantially more damaged than the P-38's, but there's really only one way to find out I guess. It's too bad that the job is probably too big for anyone to ever recover more than one at a time as the economies of scale would help lower the costs of the restorations. Wouldn't that be a sight - five P-38's all under one roof and all being rebuilt?

Dan

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