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| NewsMonday, August 27, 2007 4:01 PM CDT |
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A lifetime later, WWII pilot catches his flight
CHENOA — Sometime this fall, Harry Pick, 81, plans to taxi down a grass runway near his house and take off in his restored World War II aircraft. It will be the culmination of about 20 years and more than 8,000 hours spent restoring the PQ-14B, used as a target drone to train Allied gunners. Some of the planes were controlled by radio. Some, such as the one Pick flew, were piloted. “I flew it in the Panama Canal Zone to test tracking devices,” said Pick, a flight officer in the U.S. Air Force. The Chenoa native became enamored with the airplane and decided he wanted one. He got a chance to buy one in 1969 and sent a friend to Idaho to pick it up. However, when the friend returned, Pick was shocked by the plane’s condition. “It was in bad shape,” he said. Some parts were missing and others destroyed. Pick began seriously reconstructing the airplane in the early 1980s. He traded for some parts and made others. Now that the airplane is restored, Pick, who has worked as a farmer and corporate pilot, wants to take the next step. “I want to fly it. I think it will fly,” he said. He’s taxied the airplane up to 40 mph with only minor problems. If he can get it to 60 mph, he believes he can get airborne at either his grass strip or at a paved runway. Is flying the plane good idea? David Smith, vice president of the Prairie Aviation Museum in Bloomington, isn’t sure trying to fly the airplane is a good idea but he lauds Pick’s “labor of love.” Pick approaches the aircraft with the same enthusiasm he had when enlisting in the Air Force at 17. “I will take my ‘go’ pills and go,” said Pick, who once raced cars. His friend, Bob Wharton of Fairbury, thinks it’s great that Pick will attempt to fly the plane. “You can’t tell him he can’t do something,” said Wharton. Manufactured by Culver Aircraft Corp., the plane weighs about 1,820 pounds and has a maximum speed of about 185 mph. Pick believes the aircraft, stored in a maintenance shop adjacent to his home, is one of only three of this particular PQ-14B version. It could end up being passed to his family, being sold or going to a museum. Pick has no idea what his reconstructed airplane is worth, and he thought about giving up several times during the restoration process. “Why did I keep going? To prove that I could do it,” he said. About the PQ-14 -- In 1940, the U.S. Army Air Corps wanted to develop a radio-controlled target aircraft for training for anti-aircraft artillery gunners. -- Culver Aircraft Corp. ended up building three models for the military during World War II: the PQ-8, PQ-8A, and the larger and faster PQ-14. -- The PQ-14s had retractable landing gears and fuselage, wings and tail parts made of wood with stressed plywood skin. -- The PQ-14s were controlled by a “mother” aircraft or by radio signals from the ground, but could also carry pilots if need be. SOURCE: Nat’l Museum of the U.S. Air Force E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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