Celebrating the memory of a friend

[Starduster]

This short story was long due. It’s in memory of my good friend Luigi. It’s also a heartfelt thank you to his Dad, Massimo, who managed to find the courage and motivation to complete what his beloved son started.

It’s the fall of 1994, exactly 30 years ago. Luigi and I were young and curious. We always had the tendency to get in trouble with local hangar’s tenants because we could not spend a moment without picking inside every single airplane around us. We knew about every single airframe within a 50 miles radius from our local airport. We were particularly attracted by this hangar, near by our Aeroclub, whose owner was and still is a great care taker of many wonderful airplanes. His old Spitfire, meticulously restored to flying conditions, ended up in the States and is now part of the Cavanaugh collection relocating to North Texas Regional Airport (KGYI). Franco, his name, had all sorts of dreams planes in his hangar but in the far corner of this dream home, was a biplane fuselage that always caught our attention. A project never finished. One day Franco invited us in the hangar…(For once we did not trespass) and started telling us the story about the project. It was a Starduster Too. Little we knew that day Luigi and I became the proud owners of what would one day be a beautiful Starduster.

We started working on the project right away. Wings first, then started sourcing parts for a O 540 crank case we had in the garage. The project was progressing at a reasonable pace when one day Luigi tragically lost his life in an airplane crash. The project came to a halt for many years to come, till Luigi’s Dad and I decided it was time to finish what he had started. We welcomed a couple of other partners to finish the project and first flight was in 2007. “Dusty” has been flying ever since without missing a bit! In 2020 we decided it was time to strip in down and recover it. Those pictures I attached are from those days showing the progress and the final result. You’ll notice that our Starduster doesn’t have the typical turtle back and the rudder has been modified. The original builder made the mods and we never changed them. Dusty’s home is in Northern Italy, near by the city of Turin, Piedmont. To Luigi’s and his Dad and to all of you proud owner of this beautiful airplane.