Warbird Information Exchange

I have an idea!! Was Lady be Good a Ford built B-24? Rebuild it to static at Willow Run

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Libya has already recovered LBG and are now proposing to preserve it and display it in whats seems an appropriate manner?



Restoring LBG to an intact static aircraft will destroy its originality and its story, it may as well be a fibre-glass replica painted as LBG in terms of value of the end outcome, it would no longer tell the LBG story.


It is best retained in its current condition through preservation as is or reattaching recently seperated sections without "replacement, restoration or repair".

(Perhaps similar to the Halifax at Hendon - not that I fully agree that is the best outcome in that particular case) and laid out to recreate /preserve its desert wreck status.

That could be done by NMUSAF at Dayton, but would be just as fitting and acceptable to be done at Libya, the crashsite is in Libya, it is therefore a local heritage issue and interest, as well as a US Military heritage interest.

The most powerful value of its display in Libya is to show people outside the USA the great sacrifice of US airmen on their behalf during WW2, (in a similar way the Lackland B24 does more for the commemoration of US Airmen in the American Air Museum in Duxford, preserved undercover, than deteriorating in the open at Lackland)

This issue raises recalls lots of debates including the "restoration" versus "preservation" of the Hendon Halifax and "recovery" versus "wreck preservation" of Swamp Ghost in PNG.

However unlike those two airframes which could be restored sympathetically without significant loss of original material and structure and displayed at least as intact as they were found, the LBG airframe is badly shattered, and its "restoration" would certainly destroy a significant percentage of the fuselage at least.

That would effectively be destroying what LBG is best known for, its crash landing, loss of crew, and discovery years later as a wreck in the Desert, and relegate it either a new metal composite/new construction, or a patched together, "poor imitation" of a complete aircraft.

regards

Mark Pilkington

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20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

Mark, very valid points, I am just trying to kick around some options I guess.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Simualar type of thing happened in Labrador with a B-26,crew crash landed just before xmas, and they tired to walk out ,with out knowing where they were in the first place, all perished, parts of the plane are still there.

Leave Lady Be Good in Libya. Sure, it would be nice to have it somewhere a bit more accessible, but one of her crew (Vernon Moore) is still out there in the desert. It's known that he was one of the three that got the furthest, some 112 miles if I recall rightly.... and all this on the water out of a couple of canteens.

The really sad part is that when LBG was found, she still had all the survival gear in the dinghies, including water. There's a chance the crew could have survived had they stayed with the plane.

Ric

Not so.

LBG was transported in the individual pieces as she lay in the desert.

I can only assume the 'Oil Industry' assisted with major plant to bring the wing and centre fuselage back in one piece. No mean effort considering the easy option.

The aircraft was in a secure and guarded compound in Tobruk when I took the photo in 2007 and will surely still be located there.

This aircraft needs to be displayed in a secure crash diorama setting and I personally would suggest that the missing engines etc in the US be returned to Libya, as a good will gesture.

It will be interesting to see how all this plays and develops.

PeterA

Hear, hear JDK. A sensible answer. At least the Libyans are attempting to do something constructive. I get quite upset about PNG though where there is rampant and blatant scrapping of historic aircraft, but no, you can't have them to save as far as the Govt. is concerned.

My 2 cents

no no no!! it would be like trying to make the mona lisa beautiful. restore the lady & you'll erase her history. a diorama presentation will preserve her mystique.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

I saw an early morning TV broadcast with the new ambassador from LYBYA in Houston TX (they have established their consulate there) He is lobying the TX oil companies for their technology and expertise on oil exploration. This would be a good time for one of you Houston guys to put a bug in somebody's ear and make the LBG part of the negotiations. Maybe we can get her back. We can argue the restoration crap after possesion is established(sounds like Swamp Ghost don't it).

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tracers work both ways

If the Libyans plan to display her in that new museum, she should stay there I think.

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

If they want to build a museum and reconstruct the crash site, then that is fitting for the aircraft and the crew. I wish them luck. Now if it just continues to rot away uncared for, then that would be a different story.

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Sure, Charles Lindbergh flew the plane... but Tom Rutledge built the engine!

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Well, I'm going to chime in for it staying in Libya.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

I say rebuilt it to flyable

Steve

I seriously agree with that. Fly her!!

This is what Lady Be Good looked like in 1959. The deterioration has been dramatic, maybe unsurprising considering that another 50 years have come and gone.



No matter how you measure it, this is a truly significant aircraft.

Let her rest in peace, somewhere.

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www.B17BlackJack.com