Vintage warplane dealer enjoys soaring prices

In the world of warbird collecting, Glacier Girl was a rare prize. The World War II-era P-38 fighter made an emergency landing on a Greenland ice cap in July 1942 while on a flight from Maine to England. The aircraft eventually was buried under a layer of ice and snow more than 200 feet thick.

In 1992, Glacier Girl was excavated and later restored to flying condition -- one of a handful of airworthy P-38s known to exist. When the Kentucky entrepreneur who led the recovery effort died in 2005, the famous plane's future was, well, up in the air. Enter Provenance Fighter Sales Inc., a Murrieta-based company that buys and sells vintage warplanes.

After eight months of negotiating, Brown bought Glacier Girl for an undisclosed sum and then sold the P-38 to a Texas oilman for close to $7 million. It was an eye-popping price, even in a niche where seven-figure price tags are not unusual.

FULL ARTICLE - L.A. Times