Lake Elsinore company is building a replica P-51D cockpit flown by black crews

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

By: BRIAN ECKHOUSE - Staff Writer
LAKE ELSINORE ---- Until 15 years ago, retired U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Ron Spriggs had never heard of the Tuskegee Airmen, a black segment of the Army Air Corps that flew bomber support missions into Germany during World War II.

But now, the Kentucky resident is working with a Lake Elsinore company to improve the visibility of the Airmen, who flew more than 200 bomber escort missions without losing a bomber to enemy aircraft.

Spriggs, who is 65, says it is unconscionable that his public school teachers never discussed the Airmen and their role in the war.

"African-American history isn't largely taught in classes," said Spriggs, 65, who lives outside Lexington. "The Tuskegee Airmen is even further out of their minds. ... History not taught is lost."

Spriggs is executive director of a roving Tuskegee exhibit, and he has commissioned Storyland Studios, a Lake Elsinore company, to make a replica of a P-51D Mustang fighter plane cockpit, named 'Miss Kentucky State.' The Tuskegee Airmen flew P-51D planes during World War II.

"I don't want my grandchildren to be 50 years old before they know about them," Spriggs said.

He hired technical consultant Stan Jones, who is completing the project at Storyland. The company, a manufacturer of theatrical props, also is building fighter replicas and models built to one-third scale ---- both of which include the P-51D Mustangs.

Spriggs, who is negotiating to buy five of the smaller planes and two full-size models, likely will represent Storyland in the company's efforts to sell them nationwide to museums, airports and restaurants, said owner Mark Harrington, 49, of Lake Elsinore.

Harrington added that he believes the models Storyland is building are the only ones of their kind in the world.

When the P-51D Mustang replica is completed ---- a bubble top needs to be placed and installed, he says ---- Spriggs plans to cart it to schools around Kentucky, and elsewhere across the country.

"Ron can take (the reproduced cockpit) to schools in an enclosed trailer," said Jones, 77, who is retired after a career in the aerospace industry.

Spriggs says he gladly will bring his replica cockpit and other memorabilia to Southern California schools. That is, if the schools cover travel expenses, he added.

"You pay the freight, I'll be here," he said. "I guarantee you it won't be cheap. But I'll come here."

The Menifee Union School District recently hosted Tuskegee Airmen at Menifee Valley Middle School. But Spriggs contends that too few schools teach their history, a history Jones says is so brilliant that "word got out that if you were with those guys, you were safe."

The Tuskegee Airmen's relative anonymity ---- or at least the limited awareness of them --- is the origin of his passion, Spriggs says.

"This is as close I can do to bring history to the public," he said.

He can start doing so in early August.

The cockpit is to be completed by month's end ---- in time for a veterans convention in Phoenix beginning July 31. From the outside, the replica appears to be just that ---- a facsimile of the real thing. Jones built the replica with steel studs, which are used for industrial construction, particle board and plywood, he said.

But inside the narrow cockpit, it seems as real as any plane command center, flush with the requisite controls and instruments. The cockpit's narrow walls and (yet-to-be installed) low ceiling is intentional: It's designed specifically for children, so they can approximate what it would be like as an airman.

The replica cockpit is expected to cost about $12,500, which is being funded by a grant from the state of Kentucky, Spriggs said.

"Lots of Kentucky money," he said.