Vintage Plane Liberated
A computer software magnate from Massachusetts is restoring a piece of San Diego aviation history: a B-24 Liberator of the type designed by Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego during World War II.
In all, 6,000 B-24s were manufactured in San Diego, and an another 13,000 were built in Fort Worth; Dallas; Tulsa, Okla., and Willow Run, Mich., making it the most-produced plane of World War II. Less than 10 of the long-range heavy bombers are still intact, and only one is in flying condition.
Bob Collings of Stowe, Mass., wants to add to that number by restoring a B-24 that was built in Fort Worth and flown by the British Royal Air Force and the Indian Air Force. The carcass was discovered stripped and rusting in an English field in 1984. At $1 million and rising, the project is the most expensive and technologically complex restoration ever attempted on a World War II aircraft.
General Dynamics, the corporate successor to Consolidated, has placed full-page ads in 13 publications--including Time, the New Yorker and the New Republic--to announce its financial support of Collings’ project and urge public donations.
If all goes well, the plane will be flown to San Diego for the Sept. 20-25 convention of the San Diego-based International B-24 Liberator Club, expected to draw 2,000 former crewmen, production workers and their families.
At the height of the war, Consolidated had 45,000 workers in San Diego. The restored Liberator will be on public view at Lindbergh Field--not far from where the first B-24 took off on its maiden test flight on Dec. 29, 1939.
Drives More Like a Joker
Coronado police are checking with the State Department to see if the 22-year-old man who has been racing along local streets is actually a Kuwaiti prince with diplomatic immunity.
He was stopped on the Strand going 100 m.p.h. in a Ferrari, but managed to persuade a judge that he has privileged status. He has also been spotted in a Corvette. About 4 a.m. Sunday, residents complained that he was driving a Mustang at high speed, then locking his brakes. Police found 50 feet of skid marks.
Enough is enough, said Police Chief Jerry Boyd: If the offender has no diplomatic immunity, the case will be referred to the district attorney. If he does have it, pressure will be brought on the Kuwaiti government to slow him down. “Maybe you can drive like this in Kuwait, but not in Coronado,” Boyd said.
Flag for Rushing
News hound that he is, Rocky Rushing, a reporter for the (Oceanside) Blade-Tribune, went to the Las Colinas women’s jail in hopes of interviewing Dorothy DeSimone, arrested after her abused twin sons were found abandoned in a Del Mar motel.
He didn’t get his interview, but he did get his name listed on the all-points-bulletin for DeSimone’s fugitive companion Charles Thomas McCoy (who has since been arrested).
After Rushing left Las Colinas, a desk clerk realized that Rushing was about the same height and weight as McCoy. The clerk had been warned that McCoy might try to visit DeSimone, possibly in disguise. The clerk called a sheriff’s deputy and said McCoy had done a “bad dye job” on his hair. A bulletin was issued to police agencies advising them that McCoy was using the alias Rocky Rushing.
Some days later, a detective called the telephone number left by Rushing on the Las Colinas visitor’s card. He found Rushing at work in the newsroom. An updated bulletin was issued--ordering Rushing’s name deleted from the earlier bulletin. “My brief career as a criminal figure is over,” said the reporter.
Bye-Bye, Birdie
The 30-foot inflatable bird that is the symbol/mascot of Eagle 105 radio station was stolen from the Sports Arena parking lot Monday night during the Neil Diamond concert.
The station has posted a $1,000 reward.
Since the Police Department doesn’t have a Crimes Against Inflatable Birds Unit, the case was assigned to the Crimes Against People Unit. Besides, that’s the unit that broke the last such heist: the Big Boy kidnaping.
