[Scan-DC] Pa. pilot preps 1929 biplane for historic last flight to Smithsonian i n Washington

[Blair Thompson]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/pa-pilot-preps-1929-biplane-for-historic-last-flight-to-smithsonian-in-washington/2011/06/15/AGmZKyVH_story.html

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, June 15, 10:47 AM
YORK, Pa. — Gene Briener was 2 years old when Charles Lindbergh made the first solo flight across the Atlantic.
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And the singular love of his life is Plane Jane — a 1929 Fleet Model 2 biplane, the first civilian trainer ever manufactured. He lovingly restored the plane to its original glory — a project decades in the making.

And on Saturday, he will take his last flight in Plane Jane. He will fly it to Dulles International Airport outside of Washington where it will reside in the Smithsonian Institute’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a branch of the National Air and Space Museum.

Donating the plane is bittersweet. He is glad he will be able to contribute to preserving aviation history. But he will miss Plane Jane.

“It’s going to be very emotional,” he said. “Very emotional.”

After graduating high school in 1943, Briener tried to join the Army, hoping to sign up for the Army Air Force. The service wouldn’t take him. He had bad vision — farsighted in one eye and nearsighted in the other. They told him he would never be a pilot. In those days, he said, people who wore glasses were told they couldn’t fly.

Instead, he went to Williamsport Technical Institute and studied aircraft mechanics. After he got his mechanic’s and pilot’s licenses, the military reevaluated and took him in. Upon discharge, he opened his own shop in Danville repairing and restoring airplanes.

He became an inspector for the Civil Aeronautics Authority, predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration. In 1963, he became a full-time inspector with the FAA. He still works part-time for the agency, inspecting aircraft and issuing safety certificates.
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I suppose the plane is equipped with a radio, solid-state even.

Should WaPo writer Ashley Halsey III be on board, let's hope this one does not roll onto its nose upon landing. 

http://dcist.com/2010/06/wapo_reporter_uninjured_in_vintage.php

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