Old Bird Gets A Face Lift All Those Headaches Were Worth It, Says Ex-Pilot Who Poured $300,000 Into Wwii-Era ‘Bamboo Bomber’

The nostalgic whim that prompted Bill Stookey to buy a broken down “Bamboo Bomber” like the one he once trained in during World War II turned into one of the worst financial decisions of his life.

“It was the biggest mistake I ever made. I put time and effort into it and lost quite a bit of money,” Stookey, 73, said Saturday.

But as a crowd of more than 50 aviation enthusiasts cooed over the restored, navy blue, 1942 UC 78 warbird at Coeur d’Alene Airport hangar No. 61 on Saturday, Stookey’s grin looked worth every penny of the $300,000 he has sunk into the bomber since he bought it in 1985.

“It was worth it.”

Stookey’s wife, Lois, blushed as the plane’s nose art was unveiled - her high school graduation photo and the words “Lo Lo,” her high school nickname.

This particular all-wooden, fabric covered plane is the last of the Navy’s UC 78s, also known as “Bamboo Bombers” and “Canadian Cranes.” After its use as a photo recognizance plane in the South Pacific during WWII, Lo Lo served as a commuter plan in Massachusetts for 16 years before coming to rest in Riverside, Calif., where Stookey saw her advertised in Trade-a-Plane magazine back in 1985.

At the time, Stookey had just retired from United Airlines after logging 38,000 hours in the air as a pilot. In 1990 he moved to Idaho from California and brought the plane project with him. That’s where he met Carl “Dutch” White, of North Idaho Warbirds, a restoration, recovery and repair company in Hayden Lake.

White’s father, Al White, was a renowned test pilot who holds the world altitude record for the X15 plane. White and his crew of four mechanics began helping Stookey with the daunting project, along with other curious warbird enthusiasts and friends.

“It took him three months to convince me to tackle it,” White said about his first look at the plane two years ago. But they went to work, replacing all the instruments, engine parts, and rebuilding the body with mahogany plyboard and high grade, aircraft-quality spruce that had to be flown in from Finland. The plane’s outside cotton fabric covering also was replaced with a more durable polyester.

Stookey, White and Hayden Lake pilot Wayne Sommers plan to fly the bomber to Oshkosh, Wis., next week to compete with thousands of aviation enthusiasts for the air show’s grand prize.

Sommers, who flies United Parcel Service packages between Spokane and Sandpoint daily, said he’s looking forward to the plane’s first test flight.

“I’ve been coming two or three times a week to see it coming along. There’s been literally thousands of hours of work that’s gone into it,” Sommers said. “I think it’s a pretty good machine.”

Though Stookey began his flying career in the “Bamboo Bomber,” he later went on to fly jets and the Boeing 747.

Saturday, between the shiny new warbird and the displayed 1944 photo of himself as a proud 19-year-old cadet who had just received his wings, history wasn’t all that was restored.

“I still feel like a young guy,” he said smiling.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo