| A little background on myself: I have interviewed, best guess here, about 4,500 veterans of WW2, from 32 countries, using over 500 interpreters, since January of 1976. I was also the tour guide at the now defunct Flying Tigers Warbird Museum, in Kissimmee, Florida (suburb about 20 miles south of Orlando), from November of 1996 to January of 1998. Tom Reilly, the owner at the time it was open, has restored more WW2 bombers to flyable condition than any other restoration shop in the world. He restored 10 B-25's, 2 B-17's, and 1 B-24 to airworthy status. Many of you have seen Tom's work, the B-17 ('Nine O Nine') and B-24 ('The Dragon and her Tail') from the Collings foundation headquartered in MA flying the warbird circuit in years past. Some of his other aircraft are: 12 T-6's, an Avenger, a Corsair, and a P-40. At the time he closed up shop in April of 2005, he just finished his second B-17, the 'Liberty Bell'. He had a number of static displays (mostly jets from the Cold War era) and was the only person in the world to offer a week-long course on restoration techniques (sheet metal, fabrication techniques, magnetos, electrical wiring, hydraulics, etc.) to anyone in the world (many people from Europe would sign up for his $1,000 course months in advance!!), which culminated in a flight in his B-25 down to the largest private collection in the world today, Kermit Weeks' Fantasy of Flight, in Polk County. He also obtained a very rare bird: a FW-190F-8, which he planned on restoring to airworthy status. It is now located in another shop about 2 miles away from his hangar. |