"Liberty Belle" to BE RESTORED??

[JohnTerrell]

According to what was stated on the Warbird Radio interview from Monday, they have a good portion of the wings still, as well as much of the tail and the engines - to form the rebuild from. They are looking to either build a new fuselage, or use an existing one they may be able to secure.

[Ed Likes]

I add my congratulations as well in the announcement that Liberty Belle is going to be rebuilt and fly again at some point. My question at this time revolves around the Dyke Lake B-17 also owned by Mr. Don Brooks. Is that B-17 going to be used in the rebuild of Liberty Belle? Or is that B-17 going to be sold to help finance Liberty Belle? Or is the Dyke Lake B-17 going to be at some point possibly a flying B-17 in its own right.
Mr. Ray Fowler did an outstanding job in what the Liberty Aviation Museum intends to do with Liberty Belle, but I didn't see any mention about the other B-17 hence the question which hopefully someone can shed some light on.

[Fortress Fan]

With the amount of material avaliable to the B-17 builders now, through the hard work of some great guys, I think the Dyke lake B-17 will be rebuilt as one B-17 and the Liberty Belle will be rebuilt as an independant B-17.
Yes, loads of work, but why not have 2 projects.

Just my opinion.

[Iclo]

When we see the work done in the restoration of the Champaign Lady in Urbana (complete new nose section and radio room section)
I suppose that building a complete fuselage from scratch is feasable, just a question of work and money.
The cockpit section is probably the one requiring more work ? If someone could confirm this impression.

[JohnB]

The Liberty Foundation seems to indicate that the Liberty Belle will be rebuilt...independently of the lake aircraft.

Yes, buillding a new fuselage is a lot of work, but after seeing three B-17s disassembled last year (Memphis Belle, Swoose, and Champaign Lady) I'd guess that the fuselage isn't the hard part..the wings center section is.

[cptsmith]

JohnB is right about that! The fuselage is a pretty straight forward build with the bombbay area be the most critical because of the wing attach fittings.