Neglected Staggerwing finds a home

kmead

kmead

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kmead
I first heard about this Staggerwing when we moved back here in 1974. My father and many others described the owner as a totally crazy old man that would never let it go. I wanted the plane so badly, my father even told me he would give me the money if I could convince him to sell. I never could get him to talk to me, but he did meet many people near the airplane with a shotgun.I could go into how I know, but the airplane was built new for Goodyear (flagship yellow) and barely had 1000 hrs when he put it down for a recover in 1966 that never happen. In the 70s the owner was convinced it was worth $200,000.

In 1977 one of my father's mechanics and I slipped around his farm to see the airplane. This once beautiful D17 sat in this open barn with flat tires rusted spinner and the 4 wings were removed. The rafters of the barn were sitting on the turtle back. The situation was critical at that time.

3 years ago the owner entered a VA home and the bank started settling his estate. Crews found this Holy grail of airplanes under the wreckage of the collapsed barn.

They sold the Staggerwing last week for $8,000.00 to a local group. I really wanted to buy my dream airplane (my wife was really afraid I would). With relocation soon and my overload of projects and 2 airplanes left me with no options. It made me feel good when the Wells Aircraft owner told me that it struck a cord with him that I hoped it could stay local. The plans at this point are to donate the Staggewing to the Kansas Aviation museum in Wichita for restoration and display. The Staggerwing will be at home now.
 

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Beautiful plane.

Personally I think its a shame its going to a museum unless the museum will be flying it.
 
Only museums and rich folks can afford the cost of restoration of any aircraft of that type.

Orvil Tosh "Tosh aviation industries" Tacoma Wa, did a D-17-S for a customer and he told me the customer paid him well over $750,000 to restore it, and the end value was over a million bucks.
 
Tom-D said:
Only museums and rich folks can afford the cost of restoration of any aircraft of that type.

Orvil Tosh "Tosh aviation industries" Tacoma Wa, did a D-17-S for a customer and he told me the customer paid him well over $750,000 to restore it, and the end value was over a million bucks.
Click to expand...

How long ago was that?
 
Greg Bockelman said:
I wonder how the much the values have taken a hit these last few years.
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Ever wonder the other end? how much the cost of restoration materials have gone up?

When I bought the recover materials for the Fairhild White untinted base paint was 128 per gallon, now it is over 250 per gallon.

some reds are now over $300 per gallon,
 
We were guessing on how many man hours it would take to bring it back. I don't think I could live long enough to get it done by myself. I had a verbal commitment for a trade to get my grandfather's former B50 Twin Bonanza after it was donated to an A&P school by the owner that let it sit for 20 years. It would have been incredible to be a 3rd generation Mead to fly that T-bone. Common sense stopped me though. Looking back I would have been really, really upside down after it was done. The Staggerwing would have been the same kind of project.
 
If money was no object I would own a P51 and a Beech Staggerwing. There is no sexier plane in the world, IMHO.
 
Tom-D said:
Ever wonder the other end? how much the cost of restoration materials have gone up?

When I bought the recover materials for the Fairhild White untinted base paint was 128 per gallon, now it is over 250 per gallon.

some reds are now over $300 per gallon,
Click to expand...

I understand that. But all that really means is that you would have more in a restoration than what it is worth.

So, what is a million dollar Staggerwing 10 years ago worth today?
 
Greg Bockelman said:
I understand that. But all that really means is that you would have more in a restoration than what it is worth.

So, what is a million dollar Staggerwing 10 years ago worth today?
Click to expand...

Actually that type of aircraft has a very narrow market filled with fat wallets, and the price has not been effected that much.
 
Hi all. I also did bid on this Staggerwing, with my wifes permission too! I went to look at it in early September, and found that the only useable thing on the plane was the fuselage frame. The engine does turn, but my guess is the prop and engine are not valid cores for rebuild. I currently have a flyable Staggerwing that I restored a few years ago, and fly it today. I was going to buy this project, and build 4 new wings and put it back in the air with a new panel, engine, and prop, and covering. I can tell you it will take 4000+ man hours and about $105,000 in parts for wood, covering and materials, engine, prop, and a new instrument panel with radios to make this fly, and the 4000+ hours of labor. Fully restored it will be worth around $300,000 today. So if you do the work yourself, you can get by. If you pay a shop, you will be in the hole around $300,000 but have a Staggerwing to fly.

This plane needs 4 new wings built from scratch, new vertical fin and horizontal stab built from scratch, airlerons and flaps can be repaired, elevator and rudder can be sandblasted and rebuilt too. Windshield is cracked, and all of the sheetmetal will have to be sanded and repaired and refinished. All wood on the fuselage down to the floorboards must be installed new, along with all formers and stringers. Control wheel is missing and all instruments from suvenier hunters I assume. Like I said, lots of man hours here. I also found a few spots on the fuselage frame where the steel tubing is rusted beyond use, and these tubes will have to be cut out and new ones welded in before going back together.

I bid $4250 for it, but there were 8 bids and I was not the high bidder. I would have loved to have it as I was going to make it fly with the original "N" number too, but oh well. Not sure why they would put such a great flying plane in a museum. There are so many in museums that willl never fly. The Beech factory has serial #3.

If they ever change their mind, I would buy it and rebuild for flight.

I hope they do too. These staggerwing projects quite often pass from owner to owner (even groups of people), and they never finish them and finally get sold again. Many folks attempt these staggerwing projects and find they are overwhelmed by the number of parts and the complexity of the craft as they go along, and they get frustrated and slow and eventually quit. Happens all of the time.

I wonder how the winning group came up with their price? I initially placed a value on this bird of $8250 after seeing the photos. I bought a ticket to Wichita and rented a car and drove to Hutchinson, and after spending 2 hours looking it over, I found not a single piece of wood could be re-used, and one wing has the inboard 2 feet missing, which means the wing attach hardware is missing from the inner spar. There is much hardware that is missing as well from the project, so it will all have to be manufactured. Anyway, after seeing the plane, and taking lots of photos, I revised my bid downward to $4250 and mailed it in.

I have a small resoration shop here in Minnesota, and calculated that I could make the plane fly again in like new condition in 4 years if all went well. If the engine and prop had core value, that would be a plus, but with water in the engine, I think the internal pieces and crank would have too much rust to be useable, and the prop too.

Meanwhile, I am off to the Staggerwing Museum next week for their annual convention...in my D17S ...Kurt


I sure hope they finish the project!

Happy con-trails!
 
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It's so sad. I got to fly them back in the late 60's because nobody wanted to fly them....they were "junk". You had to clean 'em up, put oil into them....sigh.
 
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