Warbird Information Exchange

There's many positive reasons for the restore/maintain in plain view school of thought. It lets people see the process of restoration, how difficult restoration can be, what it takes to keep a warbird flying, etc...

It lets the museum patron be involved and in the case of a static museum it adds life to the museum floor.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Rick that is pretty cool. It would be nice to see the Flak Bait and Swoose restored in Dayton. I have no idea where the Swoose is going to go.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Of course we know where it's going, it has already been publicised by the media. Swoose goes to NMUSAF and Shoo Shoo goes to Udvar Hazey. The Belle goes on the floor in place of Shoo Shoo at NMUSAF.

What we don't know is the ultimate fate of Flak Bait.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

It is not that I doubt you, I find it odd that nothing is being said from Dayton about it at all.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

News to me as well ....

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Jerry
S/Sgt. - USAF Radio Operator '52-'56
C-119 "Flying Boxcar" - Korea & Japan

Volunteer: National Museum of the US Air Force (2007-2016)
LTM 381st Bomb Group Memorial Association

Please don't confuse the City of Memphis idiots with the few guys of the Memphis Belle Memorial Association that were actually trying to work on the Belle. Their were several people in the MBMA that gave a tremendous amount of personal effort, sacrifice, and their own money to try to improve the condition of the Belle with the hope of one day getting it in a proper museum in Memphis. To a lot of the A&P's and their family members that worked on the Belle, it was a labor of love and respect, and a lot of them planned on the upkeep of the Belle as being their retirement job. These people were the ones that got screwed in the whole deal. They worked their butts off on the plane and securing donated tools and other needed stuff to get the restoration going. They truly went above and beyond given the amount of support they had to work with.

Agreed. Those volunteers got a raw deal, however the aircraft is now in a better place. To bad the city of memphis couldn't have stepped up to the plate and helped out. A little short sighted in my opinion...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

I have nothing but respect for MOST of the members of the MBMA. I have issues with some, but that is not for a public forum. But I willsay that if it wasn't for them, Mr. Donafrio(SP) Robert and Linda Morgan, and Margaret Polk, that the plane wouldn't be here today. The plane is now where it should be in my opinion. It would have been nice to see the City of Memphis step up to do something, but they were not interested.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Retroing Ole Betsy is going to lots of trouble for the USAFM - not only lots of corrosion, but when this aircraft was assigned to Panama, the original wings were found full of corrosion and swapped for a set of B-17E wings

Still would rather see this aircraft restored to combat condition rather then a transport.

Dave

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Dave Gansz

If I recall correctly, the NASM book on the airplane indicated it was a new set of B-17B wings held in Panama that replaced the corroded B-17D wings. It would be interesting to take a close look at the wings and see what they are.