1945 PV2 Harpoon Back from the Dead

Thanks for posting that article Smash. Great to see a 'Poon saved and back in the air. I've done a couple of recovery gigs like that , so a real blast down memory lane. One of the eminance gris I used to work with pulled a job off waay back when(1947) in northern Quebec, with a Goose sunk in a lake. The one photo he had was astonishing. Beyond being sunk, raised with 45 gal drums and come-alongs, full of mud and corrosion after a couple years in the lake, she had lost most of the nose forward of the cockpit. With no way to haul it off in pieces, they repacked engines, schlepped in props, components, and what not, and fashioned a temporary front hull out of timber, canvas, and a Norseman full of fiberglass. She was so nose heavy that the prop tips were almost in the water, so they filled the heater compartment with lake boulders untill she was almost back to something like normal C of G, threw away anything not needed for the ferry flight, including the landing gear, and away.The little b&w brownie camera snap of the Goose lifting off with the help of a bush catapault- tie the tail to a tree on the shore, run up to full honk, and the' cat operator' on shore severs the rope with an axe- is beyond scary, The things that can be done in the absence of regulators!
 
No idea. It was the insurance company that contracted the salvage. The aircraft was rebuilt and re sold. Hopefully she's still out there, and not back in a lake somewhere.1947 was a bit before my time. Are there any 'stock'- non Howarded -'Poons out there flyinf besides Fat Cat?
 
Thats the same palne?!? I guess there is nothing soda blasting can't clean up!
 
Very cool! I'm glad to see another warbird saved. The Harpoon was a favorite of mine in CFS2. Something about how she handled I guess.
 
It is an amazing (though very long - note there are 20 pages thus-far, and growing almost weekly with updates!) thread to look through, if you haven't been following it from the beginning. I'm still rather amazed by all it all, even having been following it since day 1. The people involved with the aircraft are extremely fortunate, in that, except for some minor surface corrosion that could be dealt with easily enough, the aircraft has been proving itself to be in excellent condition after all of these years! It sounds like the application of the authentic original exterior paint work will be happening rather soon, with a lot of pre-paint prep work being done to the exterior of the aircraft.

As I've mentioned in another thread, when all of the work is complete, it will completely original-stock, with all original systems/WWII-hardware that it came equipped with from the factory. I believe I recall that even all of the original WWII-era radios will be functional.
 
BTW, if you want to see another indication of the quality work that the company, Vintage Aircraft, is known for producing, look here: http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=38210 (Obviously this was a custom rebuild, but the PV2, and other projects of theirs, are done exactly to WWII-era specifications.)

If you go to their web page, and navigate around, there are pages covering all of their various projects/interests/involvements, etc. http://www.twinbeech.com/
 
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