30 years from now, will warbirds be flying?

[GtoRA2]

OK, now it seems like right now there are more warbirds flying then ever.

Some rare ones coming on line as well.


Will this keep going or will the buble burst when parts become even harder to find?

Will Oil prices help drive these old birds from the sky?

What do you guys think?

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

I think that in some cases of current planes, parts are refabbed - especially for the flying ones.

I know there are flyable restored aircraft put together from rusted fuselages - no way they'd be airworthy without refabbed parts.
-SW

[Nilsen]

Originally posted by GtoRA2
OK, now it seems like right now there are more warbirds flying then ever.

Some rare ones coming on line as well.


Will this keep going or will the buble burst when parts become even harder to find?

Will Oil prices help drive these old birds from the sky?

What do you guys think?

Doubt oil prices will affect it much. Those that has the planes now are enthusiasts that can afford them. If they can't then there will always be a buyer that can.

After a while the planes will be less orignal tho because of lack of original parts and alot of them will crash and be lost forever even if they are very careful. In 60 years the planes you see _flying_ will be mostly replicas.

[GtoRA2]

Oh I knw they make alot of the parts new or make them from scratch, but some stuff can not be rebuilt past a point.


hell I think there is a comany oin texas that is making japanese KI 43s almost from scratch...

[Maverick]

Cost of parts and insurance will likely drive them down to the ground. I know of one 51 owner that won't fly it as it is worth "too much money" to risk putting it in the air. He has just rolled it out of the hanger and ground run it in the last 10 years that I know of. Sad really.

I figure tha only "warbirds" that will be flying later will be the lighter trainers and liason birds. The newer imports like the CJ and Yaks will end up filling to void for "warbirds".

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

There's also some people building Bf109s, Fw190s and Me262s (well only one 262 right now, not sure if they are doing a line of them). All from scratch.

It probably depends on the plane and how detailed the plans are - if any exist.

Like a lot of Russian planes, dunno if anything was kept after WWII or what happened with it - especially some of the Polikarpov planes because I think he was declared an enemy by Stalin.
-SW

[rpm]

It will eventually get to the point of being cost prohibitive to operate them. You can always machine new parts. Fuel will always be available thru synthetics. But the cost of these things along with the risk of losing it thru accident will skyrocket.

[GtoRA2]

Didnt the russians just make a run of Yak 9s and sell them?

Like brand new planes made a few years ago?

[Hawklore]

Well if you consider the modern aircraft flying today will become warbirds, then yes...

[Roscoroo]

Originally posted by AKS\/\/ulfe
There's also some people building Bf109s, Fw190s and Me262s (well only one 262 right now, not sure if they are doing a line of them). All from scratch.

-SW

They have 6 Me-262's in the Stormbirds hanger in various stages of production . (one flying model and another that is almost done)

You can buy almost everything to build a P-51 .. some of the engines are starting to get scarce , but i have a feeling theres still a few barns/shops that have a stack of them hidding .
(i know of at least 15 allisons and several merlins just sitting around )

I found a set of R-2800 rods in a machine shop the other day .

We did a bunch of work on this Two man Submarine thats been contracted to find and catalog all the missing planes that are in lake washington and puget sound . (it just put to water acouple of months ago and is fully operational now )  The owner promised me some pictures ... I cant wait .