Greetings all,
We often hear about really cool planes found abandoned in barns, etc. etc., but I always viewed the stories with skepticism. Well....I found one.
A local vocational tech school was given a Skybolt project, untouched and in original boxes, crates, etc. Literally untouched since 1978. The school did not want it, I found out about it, went to see it and bought it on the spot.
The fuselage was welded by Mac's company in Tempe, AZ, which makes it a Firebolt, from what I am told. Marquat gear, new wheels, Scott tailwheel, mirror finish firewall in box, all fittings for the wings in boxes, all ribs stacked on a jig, spars completed, tail welded and boxed, six tubes of original plans with hand written notes from Mac and what look to be some from Hale and on and on. Boxes containing huge amounts of bolts
uts...labeled for each job. Too much to inventory right now. The gentleman who bought it was an airline pilot, developed cancer in 1980 and never touched it. Kept it in his hangar all these years, while he and his wife flew their Cessna 180. I recently went to meet her and learned that he passed away in August. She said he had hoped to live to see it fly and she was thrilled that it would finally be started. I decided right then and there to make it happen.
I plan on sorting through it all soon and I'm sure I'll have many questions later. I am in the process of completing a rebuild on a Meyer Little Toot (about a year away from completion), so I'll only be doing limited work on this plane for a while.
Wayne
We often hear about really cool planes found abandoned in barns, etc. etc., but I always viewed the stories with skepticism. Well....I found one.
A local vocational tech school was given a Skybolt project, untouched and in original boxes, crates, etc. Literally untouched since 1978. The school did not want it, I found out about it, went to see it and bought it on the spot.
The fuselage was welded by Mac's company in Tempe, AZ, which makes it a Firebolt, from what I am told. Marquat gear, new wheels, Scott tailwheel, mirror finish firewall in box, all fittings for the wings in boxes, all ribs stacked on a jig, spars completed, tail welded and boxed, six tubes of original plans with hand written notes from Mac and what look to be some from Hale and on and on. Boxes containing huge amounts of bolts
uts...labeled for each job. Too much to inventory right now. The gentleman who bought it was an airline pilot, developed cancer in 1980 and never touched it. Kept it in his hangar all these years, while he and his wife flew their Cessna 180. I recently went to meet her and learned that he passed away in August. She said he had hoped to live to see it fly and she was thrilled that it would finally be started. I decided right then and there to make it happen.
I plan on sorting through it all soon and I'm sure I'll have many questions later. I am in the process of completing a rebuild on a Meyer Little Toot (about a year away from completion), so I'll only be doing limited work on this plane for a while.
Wayne
