Glacier Girl Is Second To Bow Out

She's here, but she's late. "Glacier Girl" touched down at EAA AirVenture 2007 minutes before 1 pm July 24. The delayed arrival forced "Glacier Girl," a "Best of the Best" contestant to withdraw from the voting, which began Monday.

As ANN reported, Glacier Girl and pilot Steve Hinton departed Teterboro Airport, NJ in June with plans to recreate Operation Bolero, the ill-fated mission in which a flight of P-38s (including the eventually-to-be Glacier Girl) and B-17s made forced landings on the Greenland icecap. Buried beneath hundreds of feet of ice, workers tunneled down to the wreckage and recovered one of the aircraft, a P-38, in the late 1990s.

The late Roy Shoffner spearheaded the P-38 restoration effort from his museum in Middlesboro, KY and after years of effort, the fighter, now nicknamed "Glacier Girl," took flight.

The recreated mission, dubbed Operation Bolero II, called for the P-38 to carry the memory of the aborted ferry flight to its original destination, England. While en route, the P-38's starboard engine developed a coolant leak significant enough to halt the mission, and what started as a leak turned into a double engine change. (You thought your airplane had some expensive surprises?)

Of the planes slated to contend for the National Aviation Hall of Fame's "Best of the Best" contest, Glacier Girl arguably had the most public story, its rescue from beneath the Greenland icecap and a popular following on the Internet and at air shows.

But... the delays encountered pushed the aircraft's arrival to the day after ballot boxes opened, making the 'Girl' late for her own ball. She wasn't the first dropout, though. As ANN also reported, the first airplane to drop from competition was a 1938 Spartan Executive owned by Kent and Sandy Blankenburg, victim to a landing accident July 13.

The "Best of the Best" is a people's choice contest among invitees, and the ballot boxes are now open. According to Ron Kaplan, director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, AirVenture attendees are voting in full force at the ballot booth on AeroShell Square.

In addition to the winning airplane, one lucky voter will also win a signed print of R.A. "Bob" Hoover's P-51 Mustang, "Old Yeller."

FMI: www.nationalaviatio.org, www.heritagetrophy.com, www.airventure.org