WIX Archives
Re: Walter Soplata's yard
Posted by Steve T on Fri Aug 15, 2003 06:44:04 PM
In reply top Re: Walter Soplata's yard posted by Jim Bates on Fri Aug 15, 2003 03:54:55 PM
: There is a fuselage half of the XP-82 still there. I don'
: t know if he has more of the plane or not.
This was XP-82 44-83887; I saw only the port fuselage and every listing I've read indicates that's all there is. The fuselage, along with the very battered fuse and centre section of a Bell P-63, were lying on supports inside the centre fuselage section of the B-36. Very strangely, etched into the aluminum on the XP-82's cowling could be discerned the name "Betty Jo" in the same style as the F-82B distance-record bird preserved at USAFM. Why this would have been applied to the XP also would be interesting to know...
S.