Lost but Not Forgotten

LOST, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN In 1927, two French flyers, Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, were attempting the first trans-Atlantic flight in their singleengine, open cockpit airplane, L'Oiseau Blanc. It disappeared either over the North Atlantic, in Northern Canada near the vicinity of New Foundland, or it might have even reached as far as the coast of Maine as was reported by several witnesses. The wreckage has never been found.

Amelia Earhart attempted her round the world flight in 1937 and was lost over the vast Pacific en route to a fuel stop on her way to Hawaii. Some people believe that her plane might have crash landed on one of a handful of remote islands. Some of these have never been thoroughly searched, because of thick brush in remote portions of their interior.

Paul Redfern flying a Stinson SM-1 was attempting to set a new aviation record with his direct flight from Sea Island, Georgia to Rio de Janeiro in 1927. He was reported last seen near Ciudad Bolivar over central Venezuela, before disappearing forever in the thick foliage of the Amazon rainforest. These disappearances are some of the more infamous missing aircraft, but there are also thousands of other plane crashes of historic airplanes waiting to be discovered. The search for Paul Redfern's aircraft was how Tidewater Tech first learned about the concept of searching for downed aircraft using Synthetic Aperture Radar.

Headquartered in Southeastern Virginia, Tidewater Tech operates eleven vocational trade schools. Though most of these offer traditional education in such fields as electronics, medical, computers, and mechanical trades, four of the schools are specialized in training to become licensed aircraft mechanics. These FAA approved training centers are in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Kansas City, and Norfolk, Virginia, near the company's headquarters in Virginia Beach.

During an aviation related social event in 1993 at the Canadian Warplane Heritage museum in Ontario, Canada, the school owner became interested in the acquisition of an example of an early model aircraft of historic design. The thought was to use it to promote awareness of the aviation maintenance school at regional air shows. Since the Norfolk, Virginia campus is located in the center of a major concentration of military personnel from the Navy or nearby Langley Air Force base, it was decided to concentrate on the purchase of a half century old propeller airplane used by the armed forces during the Second World War

Tidewater Tech established a small restoration shop separate from the schools and purchased part of a wrecked Curtiss P-40E, that was an American lend-lease fighter given to Russia during the war. It had been recovered north of the Arctic Circle, near the seaport city of Murmansk, where it was lost in action defending the region from Germans attacking through Norway.

There was not much to admire on this small pile of wreckage. Most had been salvaged by local villagers that sold parts off for scrap aluminum.

With such an initial beginning, today this restoration facility calling itself the Fighter Factory operates with a permanent staff of seven craftsmen and mechanics and one full time aircraft hunter. They operate four flying airplanes that include a North American SNJ-4 Texan, open cockpit Stearman biplane, Stinson L-5 observation plane, and a Navy SNJ-2 trainer. This summer their twin engine Douglas A-26 Invader bomber will hope to fly and they have contracted out the restoration of a flyable B-25J Mitchell bomber.

The original Curtiss P-40 fighter is still the major emphasis of their restoration effort. However, it has been joined by almost a half dozen more crashed P-40's from Russia and parts of assorted other aircraft found abandoned on the tundra. Along the way, a Navy gull winged Corsair has been acquired as a future restoration project, plus a few additional airplanes of lesser value.