Boeing B -pictures from the forbidden zone

[TimAPNY]

I miss seeing that A/C fly!

I was not aware there was a question of owner ship! I hope that maybe, just maybe she might fly again!

Tim

[adflyer]

The registration lists the owner as Museum of Flight Foundation. So...

[K5DH]

Spanner! DUDE!! Thanks for posting the radio compartment pics, and the nice, detailed shot of the trailing wire antenna setup!!! They will be very helpful to me in the future. I hope you don't mind that I snagged copies of some of them for reference. . .

Cheers!

[Randy Haskin]

There is a major dispute between the MOF and the Richardson family as to who owns the aircraft. If it goes to the MOF then it will never fly again!

Is this new?

The issue has never been about ownership historically. The issue has been with the original conditions of the ownership agreement, right? The condition that N17W not be flown again after the MoF took ownership.

Is there more to it than that?

[Randy Haskin]

I made a trip to the Museum of Flight in April from the UK and was really dissapointed that Boeing Bee wasnt on Display. Upon asking the museum staff, i was told she was in a hanger on boeing field not on public display, the same place shes been for some time. They didnt seem to know why though??

Can anyone answer this question? Why is she not in the public domain as its such a shame -

The MoF has never put it on display because they've had problems determining how/where to display it.

The plan originally when I worked at the MoF in the early 90s was to put it in the center of the Great Gallery where the 80A is. The plan before they put the A-12 in was to have it sitting on the ground. Once they A-12 came to the museum circa 1990 they couldn't fit them both in there, so the idea was to hang it where the DC-3 is (was?).

Of course, people had a hissyfit about hanging it (there were lots of people still holding on to the dream that it would fly again), so those plans changed. The next plan was to have it sitting where the 80A is, but up on some pillars so that it wouldn't conflict with the nose of the A-12.

The big issue, of course, is that in order to do any of those things, they basically have to open up the gallery and pull everything out that is currently in there. That means closing Marginal Way, etc.

All of these plans while the airplane was still under restoration at the other end of the field.

In the mean time, Boeing parceled the land across the street to the MoF for construction of their second big gallery where they plan to put all the big stuff -- Concorde, the 747, etc. The last I heard as of a couple years ago was that they were waiting for that new building to be built in order to put T-Square 54 and the B-17 in there.

In the time until then, they're sitting in Boeing's hangar out of the elements.

There could be more to it than that, but this is the way I understand it.

[The Inspector]

..and, she's sitting in the building she was built in, Plant 2.
An extreme rarity for any WW2 aircraft to be stored exactly where it was built 65 years ago, it is sad that she cannot be seen and appreciated by all because of accomidation issues coupled with everyone involved spending all their time peeing on the furniture and scratching the rugs!

[SPANNERmkV]

Spanner! DUDE!! Thanks for posting the radio compartment pics, and the nice, detailed shot of the trailing wire antenna setup!!! They will be very helpful to me in the future. I hope you don't mind that I snagged copies of some of them for reference. . .

Cheers!

These images are non-copyrighted taken by Wm. M. Price IV
offered up for the good use ANY of you may put them to.

Restore something! Make a model of something! REMEMBER THEM ALL!

Lest We Forget.

[corsair166b]

I'm sorry, but this one has always chafed me....the goddamn thing should be flying, Richardson before he died WANTED it to keep flying, and as far as I can tell the museum is just violating his final wishes....if the Richardson family stands a chance of getting it back and it stands a chance of flying again, more power to them. It should be in the air, it is a magnificent bird.

Just mine,

M

[Randy Haskin]

I'm sorry, but this one has always chafed me....the goddamn thing should be flying, Richardson before he died WANTED it to keep flying, and as far as I can tell the museum is just violating his final wishes....if the Richardson family stands a chance of getting it back and it stands a chance of flying again, more power to them. It should be in the air, it is a magnificent bird.

I always understood it that it was the Richardson family that did NOT want it to fly again.

Many people at the MoF wanted to have it flying while I worked there in the early 90s.

[SPANNERmkV]

I was holding out on you...
I had three more pics. One was of my nephew in the same spot as the earlier one and I just used the better of the two.
The others I thought were too dark to be of interest, but in order to keep PAX on WIX... Glean what you may from these.



I know nothing of the whys and wherefores of the flight status OTHER than a one liner from Flight Journal that alluded to the airplane being flyable. But then they went on to say somesuch as the donating family did not want it to be flown regularly on the Airshow circuit.

Don't blame Flight Journal for me either misquoting or not recalling correctly.

[p51]

I found this photo interesting:

You can't really tell, but the banner is actually from it's 60th "birthday" celebration in 2003 (I guess maybe they changed it to 65th and you can't tell?). If it still reads 60th, that was a day-long event when the plane was still in Renton. There really wasn't that big a crowd at the time. I don't recall if it was an invite-only event or just another one of the Museum's infamous "you have to be in the loop to know about it" things as I was a museum member at the time and knew nothing about it other than the invite to show up with my AAF bomber crew rig. My living history group went there for that event and we had ten guys outfitted in WW2 flight gear (only myself and two of the others were in full equipment to include parachutes, though) and another in Class As. We stood for group shots in front of that plane for probably at least half an hour. Outfitted with all that gear as I was, I didn't get a lot of detail photos of the interior but I did get inside and roam around after the crowd dispersed. Here's a couple of shots from that day. In the first one, I'm the guy to the far right. In the sceond one, I'm far right, front row.

In the mean time, Boeing parceled the land across the street to the MoF for construction of their second big gallery where they plan to put all the big stuff -- Concorde, the 747, etc. The last I heard as of a couple years ago was that they were waiting for that new building to be built in order to put T-Square 54 and the B-17 in there.

Currently, that's still the plan according to a friend of mine who works at the MoF, but he has conceded that it might be "quote some time" before that actually happens. I'd hate to see her hanging up anywhere, though.

[mustangdriver]

I'm sorry, but this one has always chafed me....the goddamn thing should be flying, Richardson before he died WANTED it to keep flying, and as far as I can tell the museum is just violating his final wishes....if the Richardson family stands a chance of getting it back and it stands a chance of flying again, more power to them. It should be in the air, it is a magnificent bird.

I always understood it that it was the Richardson family that did NOT want it to fly again.

Many people at the MoF wanted to have it flying while I worked there in the early 90s.

Oh, well then according to my double standard against static museums we should violate the Richardson Family wishes and fly it.

[B-17 Buff]

Thanks for the info guys... some interesting stuff! She's become quite elusive over the past couple of years so it seems! Great to see some more recent shots and very apt that she is in plant 2 indeed!! Infact while i was there i walked down to plant 2 and was almost arrested by Boeing security for taking pics of the building, little did i know that she was inside!

I remember reading an article in the late 90's ('99 i think) on her with lots of nice aerial (flying) shots of her just post restoration. Also remember seeing (aerovintage?) a shot of her on the flightline outside the museum. Was this the last time she flew? I didnt realise there was still dispute over ownership, i thought Boeing had purchased her back, and was 'on loan' to the museum for display purposes. Im sure i read they paid for the resto??

Still disappointed i didnt get to see her though, Seattles a long way from england!

[Randy Haskin]

I remember reading an article in the late 90's ('99 i think) on her with lots of nice aerial (flying) shots of her just post restoration. Also remember seeing (aerovintage?) a shot of her on the flightline outside the museum. Was this the last time she flew? I didnt realise there was still dispute over ownership, i thought Boeing had purchased her back, and was 'on loan' to the museum for display purposes. Im sure i read they paid for the resto??

N17W is owned by the Museum of Flight. It was wholly donated to the Museum in the 1990s after Bob Richardson's death.

I've never heard of Boeing having any ownership stake at all -- it has simply provided a place to work, a place to park, paint, and a lot of other stuff.

The post earlier in this thread by 262crew is the first I've heard of any ownership disputes. If he has further information on the topic, I'd love to hear about it, because that is a new development if it is true.

The last flight was mid 1998 when it was ferried from Renton (where it was restored) across the hill to Boeing Field in Seattle.

[262crew]

The post earlier in this thread by 262crew is the first I've heard of any ownership disputes. If he has further information on the topic, I'd love to hear about it, because that is a new development if it is true.

This is what I've been told by several people who have very close ties to the MOF at different times when I brought up the subject of the B flying again.