I'm beginning to think that restoring an airplane is easy. All you have to do for about 80% of the restoration is sand. I don't have fingers any more, I have flippers. My fingers have melded into them due to all the wet-sanding and pressure I've put on them in the past couple days.

Date: Sep 22, 2009 11:39 AM Number of Comments on Photo:0 View Photo

This blog post has 7 pictures of some pretty rare airplanes. I thought it might be fun to share these with my antique airplane friends and challenge them to identify each one. In a few weeks I will post the answers to these. So, if you know any of them... send me a comment and I will give full credit to the ones sending the first correct answer to each one. So give it your best shot and send me your comment! (click on "comment" at the end of this post.)

#1 You'll be surprised by the date this hot little monoplane was built.

Ever since I was a kid it has always been a fun challenge to name every airplane I see. Even now, I still do it with every TV show or other time I see any airplane. My wife gets so tired of me doing this. I just can't help it, I am an airplane fanatic! Some people do this with cars. Not me. I have a feeling I am not the only airplane nut who does this

My quest to learn all the old airplanes goes back to the days when I always tagged along with Dad on his antique airplane adventures. Dad taught me that a lot of airplanes can be quickly identified by the shape of their tail. He could usually stump me. So it made me work even harder at it. Some time in my early teens, he bought a complete set of the U.S. Civil Aircraft books by Joseph Juptner. Wow... these were awesome. Literally every make and model that was ever certified by the CAA from 1927 through the 1950's was in those books. I really enjoyed learning from those books.

I hope those who read this have fun with it. To be honest, most of these stumped me.

#2 Pretty sleek for its day.

#3 There's actually six airplanes here and some are more recognizable than others see if you can name them all from left to right.

#4 I would love to see one of these now!

#5 This one is tough!

#6 There's a clue on the tail.

#7 Be careful, It might not be what you think it is!

Click below to send your comments...

Harold Hanson the founder of the museum paid us a visit this weekend. Here is Harold standing by the Fairchild 24G that is almost complete for our trip to Blakesburg. The engine top over haul is just about done.

New inter-cylinder baffles being fit to the new cylinders.

We’ve taken another step towards getting the Fairchild 24G back in the air. Below you can see the last cylinder #7 on the 145 Warner Scarab being installed, completing an extensive top overhaul at 300 hours. During the cylinder top overhaul we found we had three cracked cylinder heads, two in the exhaust port to valve guide area and one completely cracked from spark plug hole to spark plug hole. Due to our lack of machining capabilities here are the Museum, we sent all 7 cylinders down to Alan Holloway in Quincy, CA for inspection and rework. They replaced one cylinder head and welded the cracks in the remaining two cylinders. We also installed new intake valves and piston rings in all 7 cylinders, our exhaust valves were all well with-in servicable limits. Allan Holloway’s services are highly recommended and they are good people to work with.

An A&P’s view of installing the intake tube on cylinder #6.

The 145 Warner Scarab is finally complete. It awaits valve adjustment, spark plugs, harness installation, NACA cowl brackets, and run-in time. Next we'll be completing the annual inspection and reassembly of the rest of the aircraft for test flight.

Date: Jul 17, 2009 12:27 AM Number of Comments on Photo:0 View Photo