B-17 Restoration Thread...

Okay, Show of hands... who forgot about this thread......... *note that I raised my hand right there...

Work continues.... Slooooowly... We are still trying to finish the seats... We pretty much have the seats themselves finally fabricated. We are now back to focussing on the frames. We are having trouble with the mechanism that moves the seat forward and up and down. One of the seats was original, the other we had to make. Of course the one we had to make didn't work quite right... and we have had to re-make the part 3 times! The last time we made the part, I left before we test fit it... I feared that if it didn't work, the part would be permamentely implanted somewhere on my body.....

Here are some shots of some things laying around, the seats, and some parts from the trip to Alaska...
 
I grabbed some pictures around the place last week...

You can see the new tail, and the tail retrieved from Alaska last summer.
The framework for the Radio Room top window and the top of the Radio Room itself.
Beginning of the engine nacelles.
Dad finally finished the artwork completely on both sides... This is how she appears on the left side... He said he regrets painting it on both sides because it was really difficult to get it to look exactly the same since it was all hand painted. If he paints another, he will stick to the one side.

-witt
 
They have added the framework for the top of the radio operators room. Also, they have moved the plane more towards the center of the floor since work has begun on the wings.
 
So recently I had a change of occupation which means I stay at home with the kids during the day, and work in the evenings. Which also means, no more weekly airport night. Hopefully I will begin to find more and more time to go, but I have only been a couple of times in the last few months.

Here is some of the progress recently.

Back of the fuselage mated, and the turtledeck coming together.
-witt


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Folks, Wanted to re-activate this age-old thread. Lots of changes over the years... I will try and post some photos later this evening.

In the mean time, the museum has changed their website and have re-installed the 24-hour webcam that we had at the old hangar.

www.champaignaviationmuseum.org


Check it out...You will probably see me later tonight!

-witt
 
Glad to see it's still coming along! Can hardly wait to see it finished. This is a photo of my late Uncle(Ssgt Dwight Upton, Ball Turret Gunner) shaking hands with 381stBG Commander, Colonel Harry Leber during a Medal ceremony at Ridgewell Station 167 on November 19th 1944. In early 1945, the crew my Uncle served with reached their 35 mission mark and rotated home. Their B-17G(Boulder Buf) was destroyed on a mission soon after the replacement crew took over. Also attached other photos of the Crew and B-17G my Uncle served on.
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Just some shots from tonight. As you can see the tail was mounted earlier this summer. Work continues on the engine nacelles as well as the horizontal stabilizer. The damaged horizontal is from the wreck in Alaska the crew visited a few years ago. Also, the .55 assembly line grinds on....





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Over the last several months we have been experimenting with the best way to make these rib sections for the horizontal. It is very much a trial and error process. When these were mass produced they were able to essentially stamp these things out with no problem. Without that type of machinery around, we are forced to work every single piece like this by hand.
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Daveroo said:
whats the story on the DC3/C47 in the background with "Desert Air" writen on it?..
Click to expand...

I can only tell you what I know. When the guys were originally buying up some airplanes, they bought a T-6 to get some taildragger time in, and I believe they were probably looking at a DC-3 to get some larger taildragger time in. The famous, or probably more infamous now, Tom Reilly knew of a DC-3 in Columbus that had been a non-flyer for awhile. It was made ferry-able to get it here and has sat since.... Interestingly enough, it has two B-17 props on it !

Here's some info from the net:


This aircraft was built as C-47B 43-48459 and delivered to the USAAF during August 1944. No record card for its service is available, but it continued serving with the USAF after the war. At some point it was given to a military museum at the Tri-Cities Airport, Freeland, MI, but the museum closed in 1974 and sold the plane that December. On 3/27/74 it was registered as N47071 to Texas Turbo Jet, Inc of Dallas. On 1/12/76 it became N85FA with Falcon Airways in Addison, TX. Became N105CA in Nov. 1982 and has changed hands a few times since.


I know they were trying to track down it's actual military history but I don't know if anything had been uncovered.
 
Hey All,
Just wanted to see if there is still interest in this thread...If so, I'll keep it going. Have been super busy this year but as winter is here, have a bit more time on to do some posting.

-Witt
 
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