Rescues From Oblivion
1935 Douglas B-18 Bolo Albuquerque, NM -1971
The B-18 Bolo
Since the early 1960’s Jeff Whitesell has been involved in countless restorations of radial engine powered aircraft. At 8 years old he started turning wrenches on airplanes at his father’s Flying W Ranch Resort Airport in New Jersey. This page presents just a few of the many vintage aircraft restorations in which Jeff has played a vital part. Enjoy!
Jeff,with his Dad Bill and brother Bruce, rescued this 1935 Douglas B-18 “Bolo” warbird from sitting derelict for many years in Albuquerque NM. Many months of effort prepared the aircraft for delivery to the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio where it is on permanent display. Jeff and and Bruce were on board for its final flight from New Mexico to Ohio.
The Corsair
Bill Whitesell acquired this Corsair in 1966 and did a 3 year restoration on it at the Flying W Airport
1944 FG-1D Corsair N700G Pre Restoration
1944 FG-1D Corsair N700G Post Restoration
It is now part of the Wartime History Museum collection in Tacoma WA.
The Wildcat
FM-2 Wildcat where it was found!
Bill Whitesell found this General Motors
FM-2 Wildcat in Turner’s Falls, MA and Jeff spent two weeks installing a zero time engine to fly it home. Bill flew it home but elected to pass Flying W Ranch and land in Wilmington, DE. On fire-up the next day the tower said “you’re trailing black smoke”. Jeff was in a Twinbo following his dad and Bill said “Roger, Jeffy let me know if it turns white” No sooner said, it did- the engine was rapidly failing- Bill just made it back to the runway cranking down the manually activated landing gear! Jeff, mentored by Stuart Nicolson, pulled the bottom cylinder and it was like a trash can full of parts! They changed the engine again and flew it home to Flying W for a complete restoration!
1944 FM-2 Wildcat Circa 1970
1944 FM-2 Wildcat Circa 2025
Fast forward to 2025- Jeff as Flight Engineer of the Constellation Bataan is at Oshkosh 2025 where the Connie wins the 2025 Grand Champion Gold Lindy award and the present owner of the Wildcat walks up and introduces himself to Jeff!
The Curtiss C-46A Commando
Challenge Air Transport
N9900Z started it’s aviation story as a military C-46A Commando and was later converted to a civil transport aircraft. Jeff and his father Bill acquired the plane in 1978 and created Challenge Air Transport and obtained full FAR 121 Cargo Airline certification
working with the Jacksonville FSDO. Jeff typed every page of all the operations manuals on a plywood fold-down desk he built in his mom’s laundryroom. The JAX FSDO were very cooperative but doubtful and just before certification asked about their commercial intentions- asking, in other words, “Where’s the cargo?”
The ground school and flight training was done at the teeny, tiny little Ormand Beach Airport where this massive C-46 dominated the ramp.
The day after certification the Whitesell’s packed up everything and moved to Miami’s infamous Corrosion Corner- where the cargo was!
Below is Jeff’s Challenge Air Transport ID at 23 years old -
Director of Training!
The Douglas DC-7s &
La Mancha Air
If you ask Jeff where the name La Mancha Air came from, he will tell you it came from his Mom, when she first saw the big 4 bladed props on the DC-7s - (they really do look like windmills) -our family’s favorite musical was Man of La Mancha, the story of Don Quixote, who hundreds of years after the last knight in armor, rode around Spain in full armor jousting windmills. If you search for the song “The Impossible Dream” from the Man Of La Mancha and listen closely to the words, our journey into Corrosion Corner, in that first DC-7 (named Dulcinea) was an impossible dream! Dulcinea was a name Don Quixote applied to Aldonza, a prostitute in the play, whose life was dramatically transformed when she (reluctantly) got caught up in “the Quest”
Jeff’s La Mancha Air ID badge…General Manager at 27 years old where, once again, he was tasked with writing the Operations Manuals, this time under FAR 125 as the “Wild West” FAR 91 days of Corrosion Corner- the NW corner of Miami International Airport were coming to an end.
Dulcinea, La Mancha Air’s first DC-7BF went through several registrations starting out as N381AA (American Airlines), then N750Z, then N101LM (La Mancha Air) and then finally back to N381AA where it remains retired at New Smyrna Beach Airport in Florida.
The second airplane N16465, a DC-7C was “Rocinante” named after Don Quixote’s horse. Jeff says “What we didn’t know was that Don Quixote is a huge folk hero icon in Latin & South America- everywhere we went we were welcomed with open arms, giant parties and amazing business deals! Like George Washington here in the US. Everybody knew the Don Quixote story!”
This DC-7CF, N103LM, formerly VP-YTY, La Mancha Air purchased this DC-7 in Rhodesia. Jeff sent his Dad Bill and Brother Bruce to wake it up during civil war conditions! Planes were strafing the airfield when they took off and flew to home!
The Martin 4-0-4 N259S
This Martin 404 sat, after decades of neglect, in San Bernadino CA. After an extensive revitalization Jeff and his crew ferried it to its new permanent home on static display at the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum in Baltimore.
During this restoration Jeff put out this ad which got great response!
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
-Long hours: 18-hr-day minimum
-Impossible tasks
-Tyrannical leaders
-Inadequate tools
-Outdated techniques
-Horrible food offset by all the chips and salsa you can eat onsite
-Unknown, antiquated heavy equipment
-Inhumane temperatures
-No bathrooms
-Free beer
-Bring your own bandaids
JOIN TODAY! JUST $200 FOR THIS
ONCE IN A LIFETIME ADVENTURE!
Miss Montana & The Wallybird
This Douglas C-47/DC3, N24320 did not have a name before her owner, the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula Montana decided that they would recommission her to join a group of vintage DC-3s and C-47s flying to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion. Jeff was involved in this fast paced revitalization of the newly named Miss Montana that had sat idle for 20 years. She made the trip across the pond performing flawlessly and participated in a D-Day re-enactment which included dropping paratroopers on the beach in Normandy!
Photo: Graham Robson
During this restoration, the Museum owners decided that they would need a second DC-3 for the pilots to get their certifications for the trip across the Atlantic to Normandy and hence this project spawned a second project within the project! This is where the Wallybird came into the story- a Western Airlines DC-3 N33644. Jeff took part in this revitalization and it performed flawlessly through the rugged task of checking out 4 pilots new to the DC-3!!
Incidentally, Wally was Western’s ad mascot derived from
Western Air Lines Loves You!
N33644 was one of Jeff's "rescues" way back in the early 1980s - Jeff flew with Mike Kimbrel at Western Airlines. Mike wanted an authentic ex-Western DC-3, Jeff helped find it, and helped paint it in exactly the markings it had when it was delivered new to Western, and it still looks beautiful nearly forty years later!
Return to the Big Skies:
Miss Montana to Normandy
chronicles the dramatic efforts by a dedicated core of mechanics, pilots, smokejumpers and everyday Montanans to restore the historic Mann Gulch smokejumper plane, a WW2-era DC-3 named Miss Montana, and fly it to Europe in time for the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France. A selection of the 2022 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.
Check out Eric Ristau’s excellent documentary about
Miss Montana’s restoration
The Mighty TwinBo Work Trucks
Throughout the years the Flying Whitesells were operating C-46s, C-47s/DC-3s, Convairs and Martins all of them, wherever they happened to be, were supported by the “hack”, an incredibly reliable Beechcraft Twin Bonanza- N648B. The recommended Engine TBO on that plane was 1,400hrs but they flew it to 2,400hrs just changing oil and spark plugs! This was formative for Jeff- all these big airplanes often breaking down everywhere supported by one mighty little Twinbo flying almost every day that never let them down!
From then on Jeff almost always had a Twinbo in the hangar. Pictured here, he is with his son Doug who later learned to fly the same planes his Dad loved to fly
Currently, Jeff has N207AF, his current trusty Twinbo which he flies regularly between his home airport in Southern California to Valle Airport in Northern Arizona to work on the Martin 404 and the A-26 Invader. He calls it his work truck as he regularly hauls a full set of tools and parts for these big airplanes. And as with all the other Twinbos, it never lets him down!
Photo: Graham Robson