Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation (MARC)
Yesterday's Air Force (YAF)
Founder & President: David Tallichet (deceased)
Vice President: Cecilla Tallichet
Chief Engineer: Joe Krzeminski
Chino Airport, California, USA
 Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation (MARC) is a private company, there
is no museum open to the public, or displays. Founded in the early 1970s as "Yesterday's Air Force". It is one of the longest
running aircraft recovery and salvage companies, with hangers and storage space at Chino Airport. Later renamed "Military
Aircraft Restoration Corporation" (MARC) have been involved in dozens
of recoveries, and a few restoration projects. Tallichet was a World War II
veteran who served in Europe, and a successful businessman
who owned The Proud Bird with a passion for historic airplanes. Tallichet was also associated with Historic Aircraft Recovery Corporation (HARC).
Collection
During the early 1970's a number of aircraft wrecks were recovered from the
Pacific, mostly from Papua New Guinea Tadji Airfield by Charles
Darby and Monty
Armstrong in 1974.
P-40N Warhawk Serial
Number 42-104961
Recovered in 1973. In storage, no restoration
work completed
P-40N Warhawk Serial Number 42-104959
Recovered in 1974, stored until 2002 sold to John Fallis in Lafayette, Louisiana
A-20G Havoc Serial Number 43-21627
Recovered in 1974. Under sporadic restoration for the past 30 years today at PIMA Air Museum
A-20H Havoc Serial
Number 44-0020
Recovered from Nicaragua, under restoration in Beaver Creek,
PA
Salvage
Activities In The Pacific
The
company has been involved with many salvage operations. They
have also worked around the world to salvage
other aircraft,
including: Hawker Hurricanes from Eastern Canada, Hawker Sea Fury fighters from
Iraq, A-20 & A-26
from Nicaragua and a B-29 from China Lake, Nevada. His team included Leo Gay who was a Northrop aeronautical engineer. Their
involvement with Pacific aircraft includes:
B-24 Liberator Recovery
Recovered from India in 1972, this was the company's first recovery.
This B-24 was returned to flying status, and tours the US air show
circuit.
B-26 Marauder Recoveries
During 1971, several B-26's were recovered from Smith River, British Columbia, Canada including: B-26 40-1459 and B-26 40-1464
Tadji Recoveries 1973-75
Tallichet sponsored one of the world's
single largest recoveries of aircraft wrecks, from Tadji in Papua
New Guinea, with the majority of the work in 1974. New Zealander Charles Darby and Australian 'Monty' Armstrong preformed the recovery
work. Most of the P-40s recovered by were taken from the “dump
sites” at the end of the Tadji strips. The salvage work was
easy, as all the aircraft
were near the road and barge service was available to ship
them from Aitape. Recovered were over a dozen complete aircraft
and a variety of
parts. Recovered aircraft wrecks included: A-20
43-21627 | P-39Q
42-19993 | P-39Q
42-19995 | P-39N
42-19027 | P-40N
42-104730 / A29-448 | P-40N
42-105915 | P-40N
A29-405 | P-40N A29-414 | P-40N
42-105951 | Beaufort
A9-13 | Beaufort
A9-557 | Beaufort
A9-559 | Beaufort A9-226 | P-39N
42-8740 | P-39N
42-19027 | P-39Q 42-19991 | P-39Q
42-20339 | P-40N 42-106101
 B-17E 41-2446 (aka 'Swamp Ghost')
MARC was involved with the
attempted recovery from 1998 until 2001. Later, Alfred
Hagen bought out Tallichet's interests, and continued
the project solo.
Passing of David Tallichet
On October 31, 2007 founder and president David Tallichet passed away. Afterwards, management of MARC and their aircraft was taken over by his wife Cecilla Tallichet and son John Tallichet. His chief engineer Joe Krzeminski also remained employed. It is unclear of the long term fate of the Tallichet collection or if MACR will remain active as a corporation.
References
Los Angeles Times Obituary "David Tallichet, 84; WWII pilot preserved historic planes" November 11, 2007
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