What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

[jarrodeu]

I was just wondering what happened to the Whittington brother's Bearcat and P-51H?
Jarrod

[Peashooter]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

The N-Number registry lists the P-51H as "Sale Reported."

http://162.58.35.241/acdatabase/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=49WB&cmndfind.x=12&cmndfind.y=14

As for the Bearcats:

1) http://www.warbirdregistry.org/f8fre...8f-121748.html In France, but for sale!

2) http://162.58.35.241/acdatabase/NNum...&cmndfind.y=12 Now owned by Lake Air, aka Ron Bucarelli, but also for sale.

Got any spare cash?

[speeddemon]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

I was just wondering what happened to the Whittington brother's Bearcat and P-51H?
Jarrod

The Whittingtons have owned two or three different Bearcats over the years, but the one that they actually RACED ( #8 Precious Bear, Museum of Road Atlanta, etc.) was the old Tom's Cat/Miss Priss/Swea' Pea flown by Walt Olrich and John Church. It was raced on and off between '77 & '81, and last made an apearance in '88, but did not race.

It was sold to a collector in England, but was purchased in 1997 by Bill Anders, brought back to the states, and was raced in '98-'99 as "Wampus Cat". Gen. Anders still has this plane up at his Museum in the San Juan Islands outside of Seattle.

[Apteryx]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

I was just wondering what happened to the Whittington brother's Bearcat and P-51H?
Jarrod

Didn't they have also have (Spanish) ME-109 that they were (racing) .................................................. .Paul

[speeddemon]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

Didn't they have also have (Spanish) ME-109 that they were (racing) .................................................. .Paul

That airplane is now at the Planes of Fame in Chino.

The Hispano HA-1112 was called Miss Florida II, and was painted in a scheme similar to Jimmy Leeward's "Miss Florida" (now Cloud Dancer)....which was silver with red and white tail markings...kind of a pseudo RAF scheme. But it never raced, because it never made it to Reno that year ('76).

The plane was repainted in an Eastern Front Luftwaffe scheme, and then sold to Harold "Bubba" Beal in 1980. Beal brought the plane to Reno in '81, and qualified it somewhere in the high 200 mph range. It groundlooped after a 'dogfight' with Jerry Billings in a Spitfire on Saturday. Beal donated it on the spot to Ed Maloney for the Chino Museum.

It was eventually rebuilt to flight status, and modified with a cowl/prop that makes it look more like a BF-109 profile.

[Air Race Addict]

The Bearcat in question

Here you go. From the Air Race Addict archives........
Bill

http://airraceaddict.com

P.S. If Horizon Air would quit sending me out of town, I could get some updates going on the website. Got all my pictures back and did get up a calendar for November.

[speeddemon]

Re: The Bearcat in question

Here you go. From the Air Race Addict archives........
Bill

http://airraceaddict.com

P.S. If Horizon Air would quit sending me out of town, I could get some updates going on the website. Got all my pictures back and did get up a calendar for November.

Yeah, nice Bill. That's from '88. They repainted the blue to a lighter color. It used to be more of a navy blue.

[Race 29]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

A search for info on the Whittington's P-51H shows a sale reported to "Yesterday museum". I can't find anything on the internet about the museum though. Can anyone help out?

Race 29

[ShermB]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

It was sold to a collector in England, but was purchased in 1997 by Bill Anders, brought back to the states, and was raced in '98-'99 as "Wampus Cat". Gen. Anders still has this plane up at his Museum in the San Juan Islands outside of Seattle.[/QUOTE]

Speedy - you are slipping:

Sold a couple of years ago to John Sessions, and part of his Historic Aircraft Foundation or Kilo-6 at Paine Field, Everett, WA.

[supercub]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

What ever happened to the Brothers? I remember they were involved in auto racing at Indy also.

[steve D]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

It was sold to a collector in England, but was purchased in 1997 by Bill Anders, brought back to the states, and was raced in '98-'99 as "Wampus Cat". Gen. Anders still has this plane up at his Museum in the San Juan Islands outside of Seattle.

Speedy - you are slipping:

Sold a couple of years ago to John Sessions, and part of his Historic Aircraft Foundation or Kilo-6 at Paine Field, Everett, WA.[/QUOTE]

Yeah but look @ the post date: (11-01-2004, 08:05 AM)

[AirDOGGe]

Re: What happened to the Whittington Brothers planes

That airplane (Hispano HA-1112) is now at the Planes of Fame in Chino.

It groundlooped after a 'dogfight' with Jerry Billings in a Spitfire on Saturday. Beal donated it on the spot to Ed Maloney for the Chino Museum.

That was my first day ever at Reno/Stead. My going was a last minute suggestion, as my co-worker/buddy and I would only get to see a portion of Sunday's events before having to return, but we were aircraft-interested, and we were curious.

We had just arrived Saturday as the races ended for the day, walked out out to the stands, and saw a large mass of spectators crossing the tarmack and heading out to the runway, where we saw an old warbird lying on it's belly on the pavement...learned what happened months later in Air Progress or one of those mags.

Sunday we had to head back home before the Gold Unlimited race, but we were hooked. All following trips throughout the 80's were planned for 4-8 days, and are the source of my best Air Race memories, including that impressive 5-bladed "H" model P-51.