Flak Bait - Any News...?

[Steve Nelson]

And a few more...

Have they put anything in the WWII gallery where Flak Bait's nose was?

Nope. But it opens up the gallery better for photography, though.

[marine air]

I was there today. It was nice to see the fuselage sections over there and knowing the time to "touch WW II history" hjas passes at least for this aircraft. THe Horten 229 stuff is all there also. I don't think it will be tooo bad to restore these aircraft. Just look at the P-61 Black Widow and the P-38. They look superb just as they are. The Hortens tail exhaust are quite corroded but my guess is that it is due partly to the low quality of steel available at the end of the war and also the Horten Brothers probably designed it that way. Softer steel absorbs more heat , disperses it more widely and has a lower signature. (Just a guess) The rest didnt look too bad.
We can always see flyable, repainted and beautiful warbirds at airshows and smaller museums.

[Pat Carry]

Whats the plan with the Garber facility...are they keeping it or moving everything to storage at Hazy?

What I have heard in the past is Garber will have planes in storage for MANY years to come. Aircraft at Garber will be brought over to U.H. as the pace of restoration allows. I could be wrong about this but I dont believe everything that is currently at Garber is slated to go on display at U.H. There simply isnt the room at U.H. for everything in the collection. The good news about this is U.H. can be enlarged at some point but that is a long way off.

[Pat Carry]

Whats the plan with the Garber facility...are they keeping it or moving everything to storage at Hazy?

I remember touring Garber back in the early 90's. It has to look much different now that so much of the collection is on display at U.H. I wonder if there is a list somewhere of what remains at Garber.

[SaxMan]

It would be nice to see Flak Bait conserved / restored to a point of what she looked like immediately after her 202nd and final mission in 1945. Seeing the wear, tear and scars from nearly two years of combat. I recall the instructions to the Revell 1/72 Scale "Flak Bait" indicated that there were patches visible for the over 200 hits she absorbed during the course of her career. I hope there are still a few Marauder Men around to see her back in one piece when the NASM finishes the project.

[Tom Farrell]

On December 19, I had the honor of attending a private tour of the Flak Bait restoration along with Sherman "Bud" Best and his family. Mr. Best flew 69 missions in WW II, several of them in Flak Bait. In fact, Mr. Best was sitting in Flak Bait's cockpit ready for mission #203 when they were told to shut down their engines, the war is over.

I cannot express how grateful I am to Pat Robinson, Jeremy Kinney and the rest of the Flak Bait restoration team. Their sense of history and their professionalism is evident to everyone they meet. I get the sense that they are approaching Flak Bait's restoration as they would if they were restoring the Mona Lisa. Flak Bait is in good hands.

Tom Farrell

[old iron]

Everything looks like it is getting laid out

https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielernst/15810504418/in/photolist-q67Y8L-qkoZio-q6f2eH-pqVzgt-pqVpkg-q6eZge-q6ePwK-q67PP1-qkp8Lf-q6g642-qkoMuU-pqVaqc-qkoV2C-q6evJF-pqFEj3-qnEUrV-qkoWXS-qkoLEh-q67wfJ-qnEXva-pqVfbe-pqV4Zx-q6g13F-pqVgZe-qnuCHB-q67pFw-q68axS-q685o3-qnEBDg-pqFzy1-q6fBd2-q6fCXV-qnB4zj-pqFirG-qnB5wE-q6fLUg-qkosuE-pqUVt4-q6fG68-qkoB43-qnBae5-qnBdV3-q6ehZc-q6fxWx-qnEGmH-qnEtyZ-qkooqC-qkodh1-qnu6Ta-qko9Vb

[APG85]

This is great. I'm assuming the plan is to preserve and restore as necessary and a strip and re-paint is going to be avoided? Does anyone have the actual plan for the work being done on the plane...?

[DH82EH]

On December 19, I had the honor of attending a private tour of the Flak Bait restoration along with Sherman "Bud" Best and his family. Mr. Best flew 69 missions in WW II, several of them in Flak Bait. In fact, Mr. Best was sitting in Flak Bait's cockpit ready for mission #203 when they were told to shut down their engines, the war is over.

I cannot express how grateful I am to Pat Robinson, Jeremy Kinney and the rest of the Flak Bait restoration team. Their sense of history and their professionalism is evident to everyone they meet. I get the sense that they are approaching Flak Bait's restoration as they would if they were restoring the Mona Lisa. Flak Bait is in good hands.

Tom Farrell

Wow Tom! Thanks for sharing that story.
Amazing privilege to get to know such a man.
I don't think any of us could imagine, how it must have felt, to be told to stand down because the war is over.

I'm glad to see that a "Flak Bait" crew member, was able to see the attention paid to this historic machine, that is so long overdue.

Andy Scott

[Jerry O'Neill]

Tom, Sounds like a great day with Sherm. I use to take him flying when he lived up in CT. Did you get any photos of him in the cockpit?
I'd love to see them!
Jerry

[Photogator]

I shot a few "thru the window" images of Flak Bait this past week.

[Pat Carry]

At this time, is there any work actually being done on it?

[Tom Farrell]

I don't want to speak for Pat Robinson, Jeremy Kinney and the rest of the Flak Bait restoration crew, but as I understand it there is still a lot of discussion about how Flak Bait will be restored. I believe the goal is to make her look as she did at the end of WW II and not as she did rolling off the assembly line. I support the first approach.

Also a topic of discussion is how the fully restored Flak Bait will be displayed.....on her wheels on the floor, or elevated off the floor like the Enola Gay is displayed.

I didn't get any pictures of Sherman Best in the cockpit of Flak Bait. The seats have been removed so Mr. Best could only stand between where pilot and co-pilot seats would have been. It was a powerful moment. I'll admit, i had tears of pride and respect in my eyes.

This restoration project will take more than 5 years. There is still a lot of planning and discussions that needs to be done before we start seeing any perceptable changes.

[maxum96]

I don't want to speak for Pat Robinson, Jeremy Kinney and the rest of the Flak Bait restoration crew, but as I understand it there is still a lot of discussion about how Flak Bait will be restored. I believe the goal is to make her look as she did at the end of WW II and not as she did rolling off the assembly line. I support the first approach.

Also a topic of discussion is how the fully restored Flak Bait will be displayed.....on her wheels on the floor, or elevated off the floor like the Enola Gay is displayed.

My vote is to just clean off the 70 years of accumulated dust and dirt from storage, put it back together and display it on it's wheels. I was in absolute awe when I got to see Flak Bait in person for the first time in 2009.

[Tom Farrell]

Sherman "Bud" Best visits the Flak Bait restoration.

Last edited by Tom Farrell on Sun Jan 04, 2015 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.