WIX Archives

Re: San Diego Fire

Posted by Steve T on Mon Nov 17, 2003 06:22:18 PM

In reply top San Diego Fire posted by Chris Martin on Sat Nov 15, 2003 02:03:14 PM

: Reading that post on the Fireballs... The fire was caused
: by arson? And does anyone have a list of the aircraft lo
: st? The fire occurred before I was even born, and as it w
: as it seemed sad enough, but now I'm actually angry.

Chris--

I was furious too when I heard about this. Anyone with an old copy of Leslie Hunt's Veteran and Vintage Aircraft books would be able to run down a list of what was lost to the mental-midget firebug. Off the top of my head, besides the FR-1 Fireball, the one other particular type I remember being lost was a Ryan M-1 mailplane that had been a one of a kind survivor. (The rebuilt San Diego Aerospace Museum has a replica M-1 on show).

As there was a focus on Ryan Aeronautical there, the total loss of the original San Diego collection probably took out about a third of the then-remaining original Ryan aircraft (exclusive of the slightly-less-rare PT-22s)...A terrible shame.

S.

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