Hmmm ~ maybe I didn't explain things very well. And you have to remember I'm not speaking on behalf of the Imperial War Museum ....
Mary Alice had been a working aircraft that became a picked over derelict by the early 1980s. It was slowly transformed into a world class
museum exhibit at Duxford. It's never been a "warbird" as most of us understand the term.
IWM don't restore aircraft to fly. The conservation treatment process now being performed on the B-17 is to conserve a
museum artifact for future generations of museum visitors to come and see.
Lest we forget the importance of what the building and its contents represent ~
I'll quote a piece of text directly from the IWM - American Air Museum website ......
"The American Air Museum in Britain stands as a memorial to the 30,000 American airmen who gave their lives flying from UK bases
in defence of liberty during the Second World War, and also honours those who fought in Korea, Vietnam, Libya, Iraq and other conflicts
and battles of the 20th and 21st centuries."
You can read more about the importance of the AAM and it's role in the Duxford landscape by following this link
http://aam.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.3637The temporary nose art is based upon an image of a B-17 from the 100th BG. I zoomed into the nose art in Photoshop ~
then traced each letter onto graph paper. Then spent a couple of hours coloring them in !
It's not 100 pct accurate because I tweaked the "s" and "v" to make them more legible.
I bought the flag in the museum shop at Rantoul last year during my summer vacation.
It rode with me on board three B-17's ~ Texas Raiders, Thunderbird and Liberty Belle !
All being well ~ I'll have a picture post for you sometime tomorrow !
_________________
Blue Skies .....
Peter
Consolidated by US state ~ see if there's a heavy bomber tour stop coming to an airport near you ......
http://www.bomberflight.infoWarbirdapps on facebook ~ every day a new image from my personal journey thru the world of warbirds .....
https://www.facebook.com/Warbirdapps