CAA: GA News, "Volunteers plan to restore Stratofreighter at Oregon airport"

["Stephen Irwin" <Stephen.Irwin@pmail.net>]

Tuesday, May 9, 2000

Volunteers plan to restore Stratofreighter at airport
Medford (OR) Mail Tribune


By PAUL FATTIG - Standing inside the belly of the Boeing KC-97
Stratofreighter squatting at the edge of the Medford airport, Bud Glickman
marveled at the mission ahead.

"I thought I was flying one of the biggest planes ever when I flew in a
Liberator during the war," said the World War II bombardier. "But this is
much, much bigger. They used to put tanks and everything else in here.

"We got a lot of work to do," he added. "It's been around 47 years."

He is the chairman of the KC-97 Restoration Committee, a 16-member nonprofit
group of mostly WWII-era veterans volunteering to work on the big bird on
weekends and afternoons.

Their mission is to restore it for display a quarter-mile across the tarmac
at the edge of the airport overlooking Biddle Road. The unique aircraft will
be used for tours and is large enough to serve for public meetings.

Parked for years at the airport where it was used for airport fire drills,
the plane was donated in the fall of 1998 to Jackson County by Jack
Erickson, founder of Erickson Air Crane.

"The plane itself is sound," said committee member Ben Gonzalez, 71, of
Central Point. "But we got a lot of cleaning and painting to make this into
a sharp airplane."

Restoration is expected to take about a year. Most of the work will be
cosmetic, since there are no plans to fly the craft.

The volunteers were given a lift Monday when two engines donated by Erickson
arrived from Tillamook. The engines, each weighing 8,000 pounds, will
replace two missing engines to provide balance when it is towed across the
airport.

Coming off the assembly line in the fall of 1953, it was one of more than
800 Boeing Stratofreighters built to provide the muscle for the Air Force's
military transport service.

Powered by four 3,500-horsepower Pratt & Whitney prop-driven engines, the
aircraft with its wingspan of more than 141 feet cruised at 260 mph.

Stuffed inside its 117-foot-long fuselage could be everything from 96
fully-quipped combat troops, or 69 litter patients, their medical attendants
and supplies. It could also haul two half-ton trucks, or a range of
artillery pieces up to 155 mm howitzers.

It was also used for refueling other aircraft in midair.

The aircraft at the airport was in military service from 1953 through 1978,
when it was declared military surplus after more than 8,800 hours in the
air. Erickson originally bought it for parts.

"Basically, this is a B-50 (bomber) that has been upgraded into a
cargo-tanker aircraft," said Gonzalez, a retired airplane mechanic who
served in the Army Air Corps at the tail end of WWII.

"There haven't been too many changes," he said.

For Gonzalez, who once restored a Navy T-38 trainer out of scraps, it's a
labor of love.

"I like working on old airplanes," he said. "Some people like to restore
tractors or cars. I like to mess with old airplanes."

The project is also an effort to do something for the community.

"Those of us from World War II and from Korea, we're a dying breed -- we're
dinosaurs," said Glickman, 78, of Medford. "If we don't show people coming
after us what was accomplished and how it was done and why it was done, it
will have been a lost cause."

Glickman was a bombardier in a B-24 Liberator bomber when it was hit by
anti-aircraft flak over France the morning of June 5, 1944, the day before
D-Day.

The aircraft's four engines were out, the pilot dead, the co-pilot
grievously wounded. Glickman, hit by shrapnel, was temporarily paralyzed
from the waist down.

Yet he deployed the bombs and gave the co-pilot the bearings to aim the
gliding plane back toward England. Glickman parachuted over the English
Channel.

He was blown onto land, alighting on the lawn of a Royal Marine Hospital.
For his effort, he was awarded a Silver Star for heroism. He later flew 19
more missions for a total 30 missions.

Now, Glickman figures helping to restore the old aircraft is one way to show
respect for those who weren't as fortunate.

"This is also a nice community -- this is a good way to repay all of what we
get from the community," Glickman said. "We're looking for more
volunteers -- as many as we can get."

For information on helping the KC-97 Restoration Committee, call the airport
administration office at 776-7222. To learn more about the KC-97
Stratofreighter, see the March Field (Calif.) Web site:
www.marchfield.org/kc97l

Attached Photo: Decorated World War II veteran Bud Glickman is organizing
volunteers to restore a KC-97 Stratofreighter that has sat unused at the
Medford airport for years.


   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

*****************************************
California Aviation Alliance: General Aviation Airport List E-mail Commands
To subscribe to the GA News List, send an email, from the email account you wish to receive your posts on, addressed to listserv@californiaaviation.org and place the following in the first line of the body of the message:
 Subscribe ganews YourFirstName YourLastName YourJobTitle YourAirport/Company 

To unsubscribe from the GA News List, send an email, from the email account you have been receiving your posts on, addressed to listserv@californiaaviation.org and place the following in the first line of the body of the message:
 Unsubscribe ganews YourFirstName YourLastName