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Thread: Recovering a local B-17F Wreck

  1. #21
    Rick Rademacher's Avatar
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    Talk to these people as they are doing what you are dreaming of doing-> http://www.champaignaviationmuseum.org/

    They are living the dream!
    Last edited by Rick Rademacher; 10-25-2017 at 02:07 PM.

  2. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Rick Rademacher View Post
    Talk to these people as they are doing what you are dreaming of doing-> http://www.champaignaviationmuseum.org/

    They are living the dream!
    I have in the past, but they want to put all of their time and resources into getting Champaign Lady fixed up.

    Ive been in contact with Desert Rat for a few months now, they are doing almost exactly what I'd like to do. I plan on helping out any way I can, I strongly beleive that getting an E back will be something of worth. I'm also interested in their C model, but that's on hold because it's on Federal land that wants an environmental survey of the wreck.

  3. #23

    Time and Money

    Quote Originally Posted by Eli Josephs View Post
    I have in the past, but they want to put all of their time and resources into getting Champaign Lady fixed up.

    Ive been in contact with Desert Rat for a few months now, they are doing almost exactly what I'd like to do. I plan on helping out any way I can, I strongly beleive that getting an E back will be something of worth. I'm also interested in their C model, but that's on hold because it's on Federal land that wants an environmental survey of the wreck.
    I worked on the Desert Rat for 5 or 6 years worth of Saturdays in the late 90s and early 2000s. Not to rain on your parade, but it takes a LOT of time, money and man hours to bring these large birds back to airworthy condition. There are not many "parts on the shelf". Mike has had a lot of parts like longerons, tubes for the wing spars, etc manufactured and they are not cheap. Corrosion will be a common enemy. Intergranular corrosion will be worse. You will design patches and repairs using the both the AC43 guideline and the B-17 structural repair manual (I think that's the title, it's on my library shelf somewhere). You will become an expert at form building for molds. There is sooo much time that is spent creating tooling and parts that isn't even thought about.

    However, if you don't start, you won't finish.

    Jeff Dingbaum

  4. #24
    My thoughts:

    1. Talk to Addison Pemberton. He re-built a Boeing 40C from a data plate up. The airplane is now in the WAAAM museum in Hood River, OR. He's on the board of directors. They could put you in touch with him.

    2. Put your shoulder into an existing B17 project. The Collins Foundation just bought the one that was sitting in the Evergreen Aviation museum. The B17 Alliance is restoring the Lacey Lady at the Salem (Oregon) airport. At a minumum they could tell you what is/isn't available in terms of parts:

    http://www.b17alliance.com/

    3. Go for it. Too few people are brave enough to dream big.

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