Here's another odd duck... the Laker Carvair. It was developed from a Douglas DC-4/C54 by Sir Freddie Laker in the early 60's to ferry cars
and passengers across the Channel 'tween England and the rest of Europe.
Funny story... one landed here at MCI (KC) and parked on the cargo ramp next to my jet. Was sometime in the late 90's iirc. No sooner than shutting down, and the nose tire blew with a loud boom whilst I was standing next to it. Didn't wet myself... but it was touch and go for a second there.
Crew called for a tire and mech, and headed for the barn. This thing was rough. Everywhere I looked on it there was corrosion and missing fasteners.
No way I'd climb aboard it... and I've flown on some pretty sketchy stuff back in the day.
Bein' as it was odd to have a round engined cargo bird on the ramp, the feds dropped by to have a look see. Their faces be like...
... and they promptly hung a "Not Airworthy" tag on the nose strut. Asked me if I knew where the crew was. Nope, I answered.
About midnight this mechanic showed up and bummed my axle jack. I wasn't busy at the time so I drug it out there for him and we chatted wile he changed the nose tire. He saw the tag and I filled him in on what had transpired and what I knew of our local feds daily habits.... which he passed on to the crew.
Next morning I saw the feds sitting off to the side in an unmarked car trying to blend in. Mech had given me his beeper # so I let him know what was up. He passed that along to the crew. 'Bout lunch time the feds were gettin' antsy and left for lunch. No sooner did they drive off than the crew walked out to the plane. They'd been hangin' out/hiding in one of the cargo bays. As they walked past the nose strut the engineer snatched the Not Airworthy tag off and they climbed aboard. In short order the blades started swingin' on #1... counted 20-30 blades and nary a puff from the ol' Pratt & Whitney. They tried #2 and she lit off in a huge cloud of smoke. Tried #1 again... no joy. The went to #3 and had a huge cloud in short order. Tried the recalcitrant #1 again.... nada. #4 huffed and puffed a few times then finally caught and settled into that loping idle that only a big round engine can make. 1# still refuses to even emit a fart out the stacks. #2 shuts off and engineer opens the overwing door, opens an access panel on the nacelle and fiddles around for a few minutes.... closes the panel and stands there scratchin' his head for a minute... finally he draws back and kicks the piss outta' the cowling, storms back down the wing and closes the door.
Sumbich if the ol' Pratt didn't light right off.
In short order they had #2 turnin' again. By now almost a half hour had passed since the feds drove off. The engineer motioned at me from the main entry door and then pointed down to the stepladder. I started walkin' out there to hand it up to him when I heard him yell fu*k it and close the door. Pilot grabbed a handfull on all 4 and off they taxied, blowin' the ladder across the ramp. Out to the runway... no runup checks... just full power and off they went.
'Bout 10 min later one of the feds walked into my office wanting to know what happened to the Laker. I just said "it left" ...stating the obvious. To this day I'm not sure why he asked me that nor what kind reply he expected. It left... what other explanation is there?
I still have that ladder sittin' here in the garage. Sometimes I'll remember how it came to me and I'll chuckle a bit...