ADVISORY/V-173 ``Flying Pancake'' to Arrive in Dallas for Restoration; Legacy Vought Retirees to Restore Vintage Aircraft on Loan from Smithsonian.

Assignment Desks/Newspaper Photography Directors

ADVISORY...for Saturday (November 1)

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2003

Re:           Historic aircraft once flown by Charles Lindbergh to
              arrive at Vought Aircraft Industries

When:         Saturday, Nov. 1 at approximately 10 a.m. Central Time

Where:        Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc. headquarters
              9314 West Jefferson Blvd., Dallas, TX 75211
              Enter at main guard entrance off Jefferson Blvd. and
              Crusader Drive

Background:   The unorthodox V-173 "Flying Pancake," a short-takeoff
              experimental airplane built in the early 1940s of wood
              and covered in fabric, is expected to arrive at Vought
              headquarters this Saturday. The historic aircraft is on
              loan from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

              Vought's Retiree Club is leading the effort to transport
              and restore the V-173. Retirees recently designed and
              built a metal and plywood fixture to carry the plane,
              tilted at a 32-degree angle, on a flatbed truck. The
              V-173 will be restored at the retirees'
              15,000-square-foot hangar on company property
              (building 76). Retirees anticipate it may take up to
              four years to rebuild the vintage, one-of-a-kind
              aircraft.

V-173 Photos: Available at:
              http://www.vought.com/gallery/historic/V173_Pancake1.htm