I remember when Darryl Greenamyer, Matt Jackson and it must have been Vernon..(Don't know Vernon, but I know Darryl and Matt..did some work on Darryls F-104 back in the 70s. Matt's dad owned Pacific Continental Engines; bought a lot of engines from them...) But despite the effort...Kee Bird didn't make it. A fuel line broke on an APU in the tail section and set that beautiful plane on fire. Very sad. I remember what a cowboy Darryl was. After putting together a beautiful F-104 (extremely fast) over the years in a hanger at Van Nuys Airport, he actually had to moxie to borrow a J 79 from his pals at the Navy. He shoehorned it in and it ran great; because of the limited type certificate Darryl wasn't allowed to fly the 104 off Van Nuys Airport and the FAA told him to move it up to Mojave by truck. A costly proposition. So one clear early morning day, Darryl lit the 104 up and told the tower he wanted to do some high speed taxi tests to see how the gear was tracking..etc...they said OK...so he taxied down and ran the 104 down and back a couple of times at high speed....he asked for one more and after approval he punched it into afterburner about half way down; he rotated and disappeared as he climbed vertically out of site. hahahha..he told the tower the power lever was stuck and since he was already passing thru 25,000 feet, he might as well take her into Mojove. Bob -----Original Message-----

From: Nebwest2@aol.com Sent: Jan 1, 2008 5:13 PM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: M-23 "Clarity"

Yep,

I've seen Vernan's work and it is certainly first class. If you have ever heard the story of the "Kee Bird", a B25 bomber that crash landed in Greenland during WWII, and the crew of guys who flew to where it was, and rebuilt it on site to be able to fly it out...well, Vernan was one of those guys. And like Gary said he also worked on the Spirit of America Land Speed Record Car. Only thing better than looking at his work is looking at all the pictures of the projects he's been involved with.

Also, Jerry's rigging service is at _http://jerrymontgomery.org/_ (http://jerrymontgomery.org/)

Sean

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