Update # 55 - City of Savannah June 7, 2010 On this 66 th anniversary of D-Day, we are reminded of how important it is to preserve the history and legacy of all who served to protect freedom from tyranny. We on the City of Savannah Restoration Project are so proud to play a part in preserving the legacy of the Mighty Eighth Air Force s sacrifice for victory in Europe. We would like to thank all our supporters and volunteers for helping to make our B-17 such an important tool in preserving the past for future generations. This week we have been making strides in the interior fuselage paint prep. The paint stripping has been successful in all compartments. All crews have been very productive in continuing the process of removing what remains from the cracks and crevices of the interior fuselage compartments. There will be many more days of brushing, wiping and vacuuming, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Again, thank you to the Volunteers for their efforts. Also, thanks to Special Projects Supervisor Jim Argo for completing the corrosion inspection of the aircraft. Jim spent days going through the entire aircraft fuselage inspecting the completeness of our paint stripping and cleaning. He used diagram charts from the original 1945 Boeing maintenance manuals to denote all areas where more work is needed. We are eagerly anticipating his frame by frame report on our progress in the fuselage. More to Come
Update # 56 - City of Savannah June 14, 2010 It has been a slow week with the B-17 restoration. Our crews have been steadily preparing for two dedications to take place in the Combat Gallery this coming week. One of those events is being held on Wednesday, June 16 th acknowledging LMI Aerospace, Inc. for their ongoing commitment to help us restore the City of Savannah. Last week, our project crew was treated to a visit by a 91 year old Mighty Eighth ground crewman, Mr. Ernest Smith. He was granted his wish to be in the presence of a B-17 bomber. He cared for many of them in his role as a propeller specialist in wartime England. When he caught sight of the City of Savannah and raised his hand to touch the propeller, you could see his emotions and memories flood back. Moments such as these inspire our volunteers to press on to complete the restoration of their historic aircraft while veterans of the Mighty Eighth s achievements are still with us. [photo to follow] Development is underway for the Flying Fortress 5K, the Museum s inaugural run to benefit the restoration of our B-17. Presently, we are focused on seeking local sponsorship and coordinating race day logistics. If you are interested in helping out with the organization of this November 6 th event, please contact Jane Harper at jharper@mightyeighth.org More to Come
Update # 57 - City of Savannah June 21, 2010 There has been a great deal of activity surrounding the City of Savannah in the last few days. The most important event was the visit to Savannah by our good friend Gary Norville from American Aero Services in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Gary has been associated with our project since the very beginning. As many of you know, his company conducts the annual maintenance on the Collings Foundations two flying WWII bombers, the B-17 909, and the B-24 Witchcraft the last flying B-24 in existence. It would be hard to find anyone else who knows more about B-17 s. We are blessed that not only does Gary live only several hours from Savannah, but he is very interested in our project. This is the second time we have asked Gary to come to Savannah and inspect the City, and he didn t let us down. We wanted his opinion on our plans and preparation for the application of the VpCI-427 anti-corrosion material to the City of Savannah s interior, and the follow-on painting project. Gary spent most of the day with Deputy Project Manager Jim Grismer and Crew Chief Danny Harden, making an in-depth inspection of the fuselage and discussing application techniques. We are glad to report that he gave us good marks on our preparation and threw in some advice on addressing special problems we were having in the nose of the aircraft. Following the several hours spent inside the airplane, Gary met with Jim, Bill Burkel, Project Manager Jerry McLaughlin and Museum CEO Henry Skipper discussing possible equipment acquisitions to begin returning the City to its 1945 appearance. Plans were also made to send our carpentry team to New Smyrna Beach in November to follow up on our last visit, and to make final plans for new flooring in the City using templates of the floors from the 909. Needless to say, just a half day with Gary moves our project a long way down the road to success. On Friday of last week Jerry McLaughlin, was asked to present a State of the Project update to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Board of Directors. The Board was very pleased with Jerry s report, which outlined the project s Strategic Plan, our involvement with the War Bird restoration community, and the large amount of expertise that has been provided to the project by our volunteers, particularly the large group from Gulfstream Corporation and their subcontractors, as well as the many retired professionals who travel to Savannah from Sun City in South Carolina to work on the project. Jerry also made special mention of the fact that not only are these volunteers extremely talented, we have been blessed by the fact that they are all good people who work well together and believe in the spirit of the project which makes his job much easier. He specifically mentioned volunteer David Pineger, who organized the major corporate support we have received from LMI Corporation in the form of engineering services that would have cost us well over $25,000 if the work was conducted commercially.
Board members commented that they believe the project is proceeding well within expectations and applauded the performance of the volunteers who have done such a professional job in the first eighteen months of the project. Those of you living in Savannah may have noticed the article in the Savannah Morning News last Friday noting the Museum s appreciation of LMI s support, and the WTOC-TV spot on Wednesday night highlighting the same subject. Congratulations are in order for several of our volunteers who were promoted into leadership positions last week: Danny Harden has been named Crew Chief for the Wednesday Day Crew and Rocky Rodriguez is now the Crew Chief of the Saturday Crew. Rocky will be backed up on our largest crew by Deputy Crew Chief Dave Urbanski. We are adding a little history to this week's update. In the two photos below you will see the B-17G 44-83814, now know as the "City of Savannah" landing at it's first civilian home in Hazen, North Dakota, on June 11, 1947. At the controls of the aircraft were two brothers who owned the local airport, Lyle and Johnny Benz. Lyle was a WWII B-17 instructor pilot, Johnny had never previously flown in a B-17. Both men are still living in Hazen, but have not responded to requests for interviews.
More to come...
Update # 58 - City of Savannah June 25, 2010 There has been a great deal of activity around the City of Savannah this week as plans are finalized to coat the interior of the aircraft with anti-corrosion material on June 30th. This Wednesday was busy from 9:00AM until almost 10:00 PM as both the Day and Night crews gave it their all to have the City fully prepared for next week s work. A Crew Chief s meeting was held in the evening to plan for what is now being billed - to borrow a phrase from the Eighth Air Force in WWII - as the Maximum Effort, next Wednesday. Plans call for volunteers from all aspects of the project to combine and finish the anticorrosion work in a one day push. We will have a complete description and photograph record of this major event in next week s update. Much, much more to come...