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Discussion Topics? 1 of 2

Posted by Paul McMillan on Sat Feb 16, 2002 09:00:28 AM

Topic 1..

I have been reading though both Paul C's Aeroplane Monthly Survey and Peter Arnold's Spitfires on the Wing (in Flypast).. Both as Tony the Tiger says GRRRRRREAT!

And it occurred to me... What does anybody think that the AVERAGE length to rebuild a Warbird is.... Some seem to go on for about 10 years or more.. Thinking of the CAL P-51C, but others take a few years.. I know this is all to do with the availability of scarce resources: Money, skilled technicians, Money, parts and not forgetting Money.. Which can all slow down the process.

But if you had the Money (like certain lucky individuals!) and all the resources and took basically a complete airframe (to make this easy we will say FIGHTER only and as a sample of what I mean 'complete'.. Say the ex Burmese Spitfire that is now under restoration in NZ) what would be the AVERAGE time it would take to rebuild.... I estimate this to be about 3 years.. Does this time seem about right to you all?? Tom and Brandon.. Prehaps you can comment on this figure??

Also what do you think the MINIMUM time it would take if you got all the best shops in the world to do various bits for you?? Could you take say the Burmese Spitfire and paint the rollout date on the Hanger wall (aka Boeing 747 prototype) and say '365 days from now'??


Paul

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