Warbird Information Exchange

This photo was taken on Tuesday, August 1, in one of the restoration hangars at the NMUSAF. The fuselage and inner wing sections of B-17G 42-32076...better known as Shoo Shoo Baby, remain packed up ready for the NASM to come and get them. Rumor at the NMUSAF is that will be soon, but nothing yet about the transportation from the NASM. It will be interesting to see what the NASM plans for the B-17G...put it on display as is or do restoration work.

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Scott Thompson
Aero Vintage Books
http://www.aerovintage.com
WIX Subscriber Since July 2017

I'd wondered about that. I talked with the Dover people who restored her originally and they said the USAFM spared them nothing they needed. I remember Mike Leister telling me they asked for all the .50 BMGs they needed and a truck showed up right away with all they needed, all in original crates, never having been opened during the war.
Beats me if the NASM will consider the restoration to be to their standard, but if not, it'd have to be awfully close!

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

I hope the NASM will reassemble Shoo Shoo Baby as is and put it on display. I think it would be a shame to take what is essentially a display ready B-17 and put it into storage while they wait to re-restore it to their standards, that could take many years.

I would love the NASM to have such a signifiant type on display for the public to see before all those that flew them are gone.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

I sure would have liked to have seen them fly her to Dulles on her own steam.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

If the past is any indication, NASM won't be in a hurry to put her on display. They've stated before that they want their artifacts to be able to be on display 100-200 years before needing any attention. If this is still true, then additional restoration or not, they'll surely engage in some significant preservation before reassembly. And this will be done on a reduced budget (assuming as compared to 30+ years ago) with any number of airplanes already ahead of her in the queue.

Having dipped my toe into some museum projects, I can see both sides. The only "easy fix" is money. I sincerely believe that if NASM or NMUSAF (or really, any credible museum) had 10x their current budget, we'd see 10x the activity. Until then, we wait.

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Always enjoy seeing your updates Scott, thanks for taking the time to put them together and share them!

I think it will go into storage for at least a few years.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Pat,

I think the plan is to get it out pretty quite (all the Transformation work willing). Supposed to go in the area immediately behind the Enola Gay.

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Kevin McCartney

Thank you, Scott, for the update. The rest of the aircraft (props, engines, cowls, bomb bay doors, stabilizers, control surfaces, and I believe the outer wing sections) have already been at Udvar-Hazy for several months, waiting for the fuselage & main wing sections.

When a B-17 like Shoo Shoo Baby, Memphis Belle, or the Swoose is restored, are the fuel, electrical, hydraulic, flight controls, and engine controls all hooked up like they originally were?

My gut feeling is that SSB will be in storage for 5 years or more. That would make it ten years that she will be in storage. A sad state of affairs given her combat history.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Shoo Shoo Baby was flyable, and was flown to the museum from where it was restored in Dover Delaware.

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

Shoo Shoo Baby was flyable, and was flown to the museum from where it was restored in Dover Delaware.

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

where is the (*^(*^&%^%%% delete button

They should have ITRAN'd her and flown her to the NASM. A little more patina would have made her that much better, and SSB tells an additional story over and above her wartime one and it would have been nice to see that maintained; the story of how the Air Force and a group of enthusiasts and technicians took what was not much more than a battered, forty year old hulk and returned her to her almost former self to be preserved and remembered by a grateful nation.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.