Requiem for SQUARE ONE

Air Classics, Feb 2005 by Scheil, Joseph

The passing of a famous Warbird restoration firm

A company was dissolved recently - sold off in component parts like an aircraft that lias reached the end of its useful life. This company garnered no publicity in the Wall Street journal nor even a small note in our local paper. By the time many of us at the airport had discovered the company had closed it doors, the last remnants had already left the hangar that had been the birth of so many fine restorations. Looking back over the last nine years, perhaps a hundred people worked with, and for, Square One, leaving a stunning legacy of aircraft as its requiem.

My part in this story is peripheral to the many protagonists involved, but one of great importance to me. You see, I was what those who work every day rebuilding aircraft at Chino call a "groupie" - named after the followers that pursue rock stars with similar fervor. Elmer Ward's Mustang was the first P-51 I had ever seen and I photographed it at Cable Airport in 1980 with my 110 camera when 1 was eleven-years-old. Still an enthusiast eleven years later, 1 was watching Elmer work on the propeller blades of his F8F Bearcat project when Stearman owner Mike Walsh tried to get Elmer to take a break for a Stearmaii flight. Elmer Ward was always very generous and let me occasionally sit and listen to them work while I skipped school or work. Lois Ward, Elmer's wife, interceded and pointed to me on that day - 6 June 1992 - and I flew in the Stearman instead. From that one action, my life changed and I ceased being a mere spectator. Shortly after, I began learning to fly with the sole goal of flying vintage warplanes. A few years after that, I sat in his cherished Man 'O War and remembered that day so many years ago at Cable where a barnstorming giant flew his Mustang in to mingle with Staggerwings and Moths. While my Warbird dreams are still evolving, my current airline career started that day in Pioneer's Chino hangar.

Square One was the ultimate product of Elmer Ward who purchased Mustang 44-72739 in 1975, which became the iamous Man 'O War after restoration. At the time of completion the aircraft was a benchmark, and graced the cover of the August 1977 Air Classics as the best Mustang restoration until that time. Concurrent with the purchase of 739, Elmer began purchasing Mustang spares - initially buying out Joe Friedman's Pioneer Aero Service and subsequently Lefty Gardner's and Gordon Plaskett's stockpiles of parts. Pioneer began to oner more than just parts and by 1990 was assembling nearly-new Mustangs to order, or carrying out extensive P-51 restorations. Pioneer completed Pet% 2nd N314BG during July 1988. Built on the paperwork of the old C-FBAU of the Canadian Warplanc Heritage, which burned in a forced landing, Pioneer demonstrated their ability to resurrect dead airframes through use of new construction and an extensive spares holding.

Their first dual-control TF-51D, however, was a sensation to enthusiasts the world over and the seldom-seen but intensely photographed N 7098V was a stunning restoration that, like a few of their completed aircraft, has led a reclusive life. Several Mustangs later, in February 1995, Elmer split Pioneer into two companies one for parts supply and fabrication, the other for maintenance and restoration. That company became Square One.

Square One seemed positioned to capitalize on the increasing strength of the Mustang movement and, with several stored airframes and the TEMCO drawings, began converting incomplete projects into flying TF-SlDs as Pioneer had before. The first Square One Mustang was the ill-fated TF-51D for Paul Peters. First flying on 24 March 1995, the 352nd FG-schemed Little One crashed fatally on 6 September 1997. That TF-51D was built using the paperwork and parts of damaged 44-63507 and registered N6345T and finally N973 prior to the crash. The wrecked Unruly Julie airframe of 44-74446, which crashed nearly on the airport property in 1994, formed the second rebuild and became Saturday Nite Special N1451D which is currently owned by Nathan Davis. December 1996 saw the culmination of a huge restoration when the hulk of ex-CA-18 Mustang A68-175, combined with 44-74839, was completed as TF-51D Su SU II for Col. Frank Borman. Notably, this Mustang had been modified with a Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop back in the 1970s and had been aptly registered as VH-UFO at the time. Billed as the finest TF-51D to date, the Mustang's stunning rebuild inspired Frank Borman to have Square One restore P-63 42-69021 to show-winning factory-fresh status as the 1998 Grand Champion at Sun 'n Fun.

Other projects included the fuselage of N30FF North American Maid converted to a TF-51D which was completed by Fort Way ne Air Service as Mad Max for Max Chapman as well as the conversion of the racer N332 Stilletto to TF-51D Rajun Cajun, now N51UR.

Square One became a part of the many odd coincidences that this small world of Warbirds, Mustangs in particular, is defined by. For instance, Chino Airport was the home of a racer built for Ken Bumstine in the beginning of 1974- An ex-RCAF Mustang was sourced from Leroy Penhall, who occupied the hangar later inhabited by the Sanders family, and modified into the sinister black Miss Fory Lady for the 1974 races (modified and built by regular Air Classics contributor Jim Larsen). Repainted white for 1975, the Mustang passed to John Crocker after Burnstine's death at Mojave and was renamed Sumt/vin Else. The Mustang, now registered N51VC, won at Reno in 1979 and was the Mustang that beat the ailing Chino-born RB-51 Red Baron N7715C created at nearly the same time. Perhaps fittingly, the famous racer, now valuable only as parts to fill the demand for TF-SIs, was reconverted, Rebuilt as TF-51 N351DT just across the ramp from where she was modified as a racer 20 years before, and in full sight of the rebuilt N7715C, which taxied by soon after she arrived on a flatbed, few present remembered the connections of the past.