Historic Warbird Interceptors

It seems like about once every two weeks, somebody in a Cessna wanders into a restricted area or the special flight rules area around Washington DC without clearance and gets intercepted. I don't know how people do it with a full color GPS and a magenta line to guide you to your destination, but people do it all the time. Intercepts are usually done with an F16 or F15, or some other state of the art fighter jet. To me it seems like overkill to send a $50 million fighter capable of mach 2, with heat seeking and radar guided missiles to intercept a Cessna flying at 100mph.

I have a better idea! Return WWII era warbirds to service for intercepting private aircraft. There are many advantages to this. WWII planes are quite capable of intercepting civilian aircraft. They can fly plenty fast enough to make a timely intercept, but can fly slow enough that they don't have to literally fly circles around that Cessna. They can get closer and signal to the pilot more effectively. If necessary, .50 machine guns could down a plane easily enough without as much collateral damage as large canons or missiles.

That said, the real point of this idea is to get more warbirds into flying condition. As it stands there are very few flyable because of the huge costs involved in restoration and upkeep, and the lack of income to sustain them. Even some of the restored planes are lucky to fly a few times a year. In an interceptor role they would have the full backing of taxpayer money to keep them in good condition and flying regularly. The taxpayers even benefit, because as shocking as the maintenance bills for a radial engine Hellcat are, the maintenance bills for an F16 are much higher. It will cost a lot less for fuel, too.

Finally, the best benefit of switching to old war planes is that one might fly over my house.