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Tallichet's B-17 in Sebring, Florida for engine work
Posted by B Darnell on Mon Nov 24, 2003 09:18:20 AM
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Memphis Belle replica lands at Sebring airport
By BARRY FOSTER
News-Sun
SUSAN FOSTER/News-Sun
A replica of the original nose are of the Memphis Belle is on the front of the B-17 parked at the Sebring Regional Airport. It differs somewhat from the way the plane was painted for the fictional Hollywood version of the plane's final mission.
SEBRING -- It might seem like a time warp of sorts to visitors at the Sebring Regional Airport. A B-17 is parked on the tarmac near the control tower used during the airport's days as Hendricks Field when it served as a bomber training base.
The nose art on the plane proclaims it is the Memphis Belle. In truth, it is not the actual Memphis Belle -- that one is sitting at the Jim Webb Restoration Center in Memphis, Tenn.
The plane at the Sebring airport is one of five aircraft used in the motion picture depicting the last mission of the fabled warbird.
Reportedly, the plane was on a flight from Stuart to Avon Park when the pilot began having problems with one of the engines.
Dumont Aircraft in Avon Park now is doing the repair on the vintage bomber.
"We were going to change the number four engine," said Bobby Dumont, who owns and operates the aircraft repair business. "But it was the number two engine that acted up and there was a lot of drag on the airplane. That's why they put down at Sebring."
Reportedly, the propeller would not feather properly. Dumont said he was unsure at this point exactly what went wrong with the machinery other than to say it was "some sort of internal failure."
When the initial repairs have been completed, the plan is to fly the aircraft back to Dumont's shop at the Avon Park Municipal Airport to finish the job.
Dumont is no stranger to vintage aircraft, having parts and experience repairing even World War I bi-planes.
"That bomber has Curtis Wright engines and dad had purchased quite a few parts for them after the war as surplus," Dumont said.
After the war, many of the bombers were fitted for everything from insect control to fire fighting and Dumont did quite a bit of repairs on the warbirds.
"Where it's parked is about where our shop was back then," Dumont said. "I remember as a boy there was always a B-17 or a PBY parked there."
The operation since has moved to the Avon Park Municipal Airport.
The B-17 is the property of David Tallichet. The World War II veteran was a bomber co-pilot and came very close to actually training at Hendricks Field.
"I went to England as a co-pilot, if I'd been smart enough to ask, I might have been in Sebring myself," he said.
As it was, Tallichet made his first landing at Sebring earlier this month when his plane developed engine trouble.
In a phone conversation from his California office, Tallichet said he was pleasantly surprised with what he saw in Sebring.
"I just saw a little bit of your community and I was impressed," he said.
Tallichet owns Military Aircraft Restoration Company and Specialty Restaurant Corporation, which runs the 94th Aerosquadron Restaurant chain.
The eateries have the appearance of a WWI farmhouse that is accessorized with aircraft and period memorabilia. They have locations at many airports around the country.
The plane now parked at the Sebring airport was built in 1945.
"It actually came off the line during the last month of the European war," Tallichet said. The aircraft never saw combat.
During the Korean Conflict it served as a general's plane flying out of Japan and Korea. Following that war, the plane was brought back to the United States and was fitted as a rescue aircraft. Later it was sold to a fire fighting corporation.
That's where Tallichet found it. Originally it had been set up as a "G" model, but that changed in 1989, when Hollywood approach-ed Tallichet to use the plane in the movie Memphis Belle.
"We made it an 'F' model by changing the nose and the tail, taking the chin cowl off, putting the two waist guns opposite each other and painting it in olive drab," he said.
Since appearing in the movie, the Memphis Belle Association has approved the plane and has cooperated with Tallichet in his display of the machine.
The Memphis Belle won't be the only B-17 to arrive at the Sebring airport.
The Collings Foundation reportedly will bring its B-17 and B-25 back to the airport sometime next year. Tallichet said he knows Bob Collings, and another famous airplane restorer -- Bon Tullius.
Tullius has an operation that works both on planes and vintage race cars at the Sebring Regional Airport.