America is a patchwork quilt... and stories are its stitching.
Christian D'Andrea
Part One | Part Two
The Story
A unique band of modern-day adventurers searches the world for downed WW2 aircraft... and then breathes life back into them.
The gang consists of a self-made entrepreneur named Scott Dockter and his cadre of mechanical wizards. They dig up warbirds buried in Greenland glaciers, Spitfires downed in WW2 dogfights in Europe, TBMs in the Florida Keys guarded by crocodiles, and planes encased in seventy years worth of coral off the coast of Africa.
Missing since the 1940’s, every plane is a treasure hunt. And each requires a major salvage operation. Diving rigs. Earth movers. Cranes. It takes millions of dollars. And these guys self-fund.
Once they’ve recovered a plane, they fly it back to the US, set it up in their vast private hangars, and rebuild it. They have custom heavy equipment and tooling that can machine parts which exactly match the equipment specs from the 40’s. They can fabricate wings, shape glass, design props. They make masterpieces.
But the restoration is just the beginning. True resurrection demands that the plane fly again. The finale is taking their warbirds and racing them in the Reno Air Races, screaming with their hair on fire at 50 feet off the deck. “Maydays are common” at the races. The pilot-owner stakes his life on the expertise of his mechanical team -- the guys who worked to make the warbird airworthy.
What they do -- resurrecting warbirds -- is about love, respect, craftsmanship, and derring-do. It’s about finding pieces of American history and bringing them back to life.
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Sometimes the guys find the actual pilots that were shot down in WW2 in the planes they’re salvaging. They’ll tell the WW2 vets they have a surprise for them, invite them out, roll out the plane, and say “look familiar?” The vets who’ve been treated to this in the past couldn’t believe their eyes. They’re moved to tears. But it’s not just a show-and-tell. The next question put to the vets: “would you like to take your bird up for a spin?”
Vets have said these flights are “the last chapter in my story... the circle is complete... this is the last thing I had to do in my life."
