Australia B-24 Restoration

[astixjr]

I've become good friends with the fellow restoring the A-15 nose turret. If his Emerson A-15 is any indication of the workmanship on this B-24's restoration, it's going to be a first class job when it's all done. It sure would be nice to see it fly!

[Warbird Kid]

Ha! All the background music/ sound-affects came from Lego Movie studio!

[jet1]

It looks pretty good to me is teh wing spar made out of a chunk of railroad track or id it just a matter of money?

[Second Air Force]

It looks pretty good to me is teh wing spar made out of a chunk of railroad track or id it just a matter of money?

The original wing from A72-176 was scrapped and the wing they are restoring is from an AAF B-24 found on Papua New Guinea. That wing was damaged and (I think) weakened by fire during the intervening years. Their restoration effort is really something I want to get down to see (and maybe lend a hand on).

Scott

[seaknight15]

Maybe we can get a boat load of us to go down under.

[JDK]

Is there some structural issue preventing it from flying?

Currently the main prevention would be money to buy paper.

The work is not to airworthy certified standards and is not signed off. So if it were to fly, then all that work would all have to be redone and signed off. I suspect a good number of parts and restorations are great for static, would not be acceptable for airworthy.

Then you have - money for gas, etc, it's not on an airfield, so a new base would be needed; and all the 'usual' issues.

[Oscar Duck]

this aircraft should be at Point Cook...

[Mark_Pilkington]

this aircraft should be at Point Cook...

The group and this aircraft have tried very hard to go to Point Cook but Defence are not interested under the current Defence management strategies for the site, in fact Iam reaching the point where I no longer have any confidence in the long term future of the site itself under the current Defence Management Strategies (thats the site - not the RAAFM), its heritage listed buildings are being permitted to rot away as we speak, public access is being further constrained each day, the announcements in September 2007 of a public and open heritage base bear no resemblence to what is being implemented, but thats all another story.

Defence's ability to look after Point Cook in the face of Defence belt tightening and huge pointy end expenditure threaten a return to the twilight zone of 1992-1998, and the B-24 may be far better off not being there.

The B24 is using a RAAF B24M fuselage that has suffered corrosion in its keel structure due to longt term water entry, and a USAF B24D wing centre-section recovered from PNG that suffered extensive lower surface corrosion due to many grass fires.

I believe there is structural skin damage inside the fuel tank bays and undercarriage bays of the Centre-Section that would require strip down and replacement rather than the current cut and removal process used to treat it.

There was also significant difficulty in mating the B24-D wing Centre-section to the B24-M fuselage, despite the expectation these were identical structures, the factory and model jigs didnt result in interchangeability.

I am not sure some of the materials used to repair/replace will be the correct spec or grade, but in anycase no certification of the materials or work has been undertaken.

The B24-D wing outers were cut off the centre-section outboard of the attach points when recovered from PNG with the intention to splice the stringers and re-fit those sections, however the group obtained good condition wing outers from a Privateer fire-bomber operator and those wing outers are being used, they are likely to be near airworthy condition.

As the last RAAF B24 survivor, the only one remaining in Australia and preserved in the Pacific or even Southern Hemisphere, it doesnt seem wise to try and fly it in any case, regardless of structural and certification issues, let alone cost, or the risk of damage.

As Albert said above, the work by Graham Hore on the turrets is amazing, he has created a CAD 3-D multilayer virtual model of the turret to allow dimensional re-construction of missing parts, and a full size rotating 3 dimensional plug to allow creation of new glazing.

The group has already restored two Ball turrets for the project, one for installation, and one for external demonstration, (and a third for return to a contributing museum as well) the demo one is fully functional.

The intent is to make the engines operational and ground run or taxi the aircraft for display. To fly the aircraft would open up other risks of damage, the cockpit skins were previously buckled when the airframe was being man-handled into position within the hangar and suffered a twist on the castering nose wheel.

It is a fantastic project, and is a brilliant achievement, regardless of being a non-flyer, -not everything needs to fly.

regards

Mark Pilkington

[Oscar Duck]

Agree that she should not fly. Frankly ground running the engines is very risky with a fire secario being very real and then being uncontained. Put an 1830 on the test stand and listen to that.

My issue is accessability. Put it next to your Lincoln eg..

Cheers

[muddyboots]

when they finish it we should invade 'Stralia and take it home as war booty. Along with all the otehr warbirds we financed and they never paid us for. I think we shoudl start a new fund: MBFTBHAWB--MuddyBoots Fund To Bring Home All War Birds


I guess while we were there as invasion forces we could help those poor people along by bringing them eelectricity too. Must be hard rebuilding that thing while some kid bangs rocks together for power...

[Mark_Pilkington]

Agree that she should not fly. Frankly ground running the engines is very risky with a fire secario being very real and then being uncontained. Put an 1830 on the test stand and listen to that.

My issue is accessability. Put it next to your Lincoln eg..

Cheers

Randy, I would agree on the fire risk and the taxiing risk of again twisting the fuselage? it does bring into issue operable /reliable brakes (the nose wheel is non-steerable fully castering, the taxi-turns are by main wheel braking), theres the issue of fuel tanks oil tanks, control systems, electrical systems, fire supression systems, and most important safe operating props. - all a lot of work and cost.

Stand still ground running of one or more engines might be an acceptable compromise, but the fire risk and systems cost other than brakes starts to rise again with each additional running engine?

Put it next to your Lincoln eg..

well great minds think alike, it may happen and has been discussed, unfortunately its unlikely to be at Point Cook where both should probably end up, due to the views and plans of Defence.


regards

Mark Pilkington

Last edited by Mark_Pilkington on Wed May 06, 2009 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Mark_Pilkington]

I guess while we were there as invasion forces we could help those poor people along by bringing them eelectricity too. Must be hard rebuilding that thing while some kid bangs rocks together for power...

We have lots of electricity, we have this dirt in Victoria that we dig up for free and burn, its called brown coal, the place is covered in it, the only problem of recent times is that its full of water and produces a lot of carbon and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and someone's started to complain that we have made a hole in the ozone layer, created global warming, melting icecaps and flooding of south pacific islands!
- you cant please all of the people all of the time!


Luckily for us we sold all those brown coal power stations to unsuspecting yanks about 14 years ago in our last recession, and now our government is going to tax them out of business with a Carbon trading tax.

we have lots of rocks here too, and some of them will make electricity if you bang them together, and they glow in the dark at night so you can find them, but our dirt is that cheap to burn that we dont use the rocks, and simply sell it oversea's to others for great profit so they can bang them together and make electricity, or other things that make even bigger bangs.

Smiles

Mark Pilkington