Warbird Information Exchange

Rebuilding History: Memphis Belle to be restored

By Timothy R. Gaffney

Dayton Daily News

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE | With the help of a big crane, the famous B-17 bomber Memphis Belle on Wednesday landed in its new home — the restoration hangar of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Bringing the best-known Flying Fortress to the Air Force's main museum has been an on-again, off-again goal of museum directors for decades.

Now, it's done.

"I am delighted," Museum Director Charles Metcalf said as he strolled around the big green pieces of the dismembered warbird.

The museum's restoration staff trucked the bomber in sections last week from Memphis, Tenn., where decades of outdoor display caused deterioration.

On Wednesday, a crew lifted the last section — the forward fuselage — from a flatbed truck onto the museum floor, where it sits in a cradle surrounded by other pieces like a giant model airplane kit.

Pointing out heavily corroded sections of the bomber, Metcalf said its restoration is likely to be a 7- to 10-year job, but will result in an airplane that looks ready to fly.

It may take as long to restore the facts about Memphis Belle, which became a symbol of American airpower when the Army put the plane and its crew on a national War Bonds tour during World War II.

Memphis Belle is widely known as being the first airplane to complete 25 combat missions over Europe. Museum press releases have even described it that way.

But Museum Research Historian Jeff Duford said it isn't so.

"There was one airplane that completed 25 missions before Memphis Belle. It was Hell's Angels," another B-17F, Duford said.

Memphis Belle is better known because it was the first 25-mission plane to be recalled to the United States for a tour, he said.

It was also the subject of a wartime documentary and a 1990 Hollywood film.

Duford said Memphis Belle is important because it was one of the first planes to complete 25 missions, and because it flew many of them as group or wing leader.

Contact Timothy Gaffney at 225-2390.