Skull Leader Posted December 13, 2004 Author Share Posted December 13, 2004 #2, I believe this is just shortly before they pulled it out of the desert and sent it to Wichita. Note that the forward landing gear has been removed and the nose is now supported by a jack. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted December 15, 2004 Author Share Posted December 15, 2004 Tonight's update: More time was spent in the 45 section tonight. The wing cap has been craned back off of the plane. A couple of the team members set to removing high-locks and replacing them with rivets. I imagine by next tuesday night the wing cap will be finished. Another team mate and myself spent the evening removing some of the webbing from the edges of the forward area where the wing-cap meets up with the rest of the fuselage. Rivets came out easy enough, but some of those nuts and bolts were sheer hell! Dave (the other guy working with me) made the mistake of saying "You know what's really sad? These were probably put in here by a 20 year old girl... and you at 25 can't take them out!" Of course that doesnt' take into account corrosion, the stress put on them by airtime, and the ancient sealer fluid that is around them. A little release agent and some airguns and they came right out Somebody put in a CD of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, which really lended an atmosphere to the hangar... Dave (who was raised during WWII) said "this is music a man can think to!". Good times were had by all and I only scraped the hell out of my thumb once on those damn nuts and bolts. Slartibartfast was asking about the tires, I got the skinny on them. There are a number of WWII/Korea era aircraft that use this size of tire (both front gears and mainmounts). They were manufactured in Brazil and sold to us through a company called "Desser Tire" out of Los Angeles. Apparently they did a run of about 1000 tires in that size, so the folks working on "Glacier Girl" (what kind of plane is it??) should have no problem getting some from them. That's about it for now... that's probably the last time I'll see the bomber until after Christmas sometime, but I'll still have photo updates at a semi-regular pace, so fear not! Until next time! Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 20, 2005 Author Share Posted January 20, 2005 After being out of Wichita for the holiday season, I got back to work with the bomber crew on tuesday night. I shot a LOT of pictures, and as soon as I get them cropped and signed, I'll do a proper update. I just wanted to let you guys know it's not forgotten! Link to post Share on other sites
dtrt Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 Hey, Skull- Were the decals there when you got home from being down south? David Link to post Share on other sites
PhantomPhreakII Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 You know, I have this idea that you go to work thinking: my job really sucks...... not.. Looking good and I'm happy that another B 29 will be taking to the sky (allthough I still have to see the first one flying) Allthough I doubt if she will ever come over to Europe.. Harald Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 20, 2005 Author Share Posted January 20, 2005 hey David, yes the decals did arrive (thank you very much!) and although what few of the remaining "original" team work on the day shifts (I come in at night), One of them shows up on saturday mornings with us sometime. I'll start questions with him and go from there! I'll let ya know what I find. Link to post Share on other sites
Slartibartfast Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 Glacier Girl is a P-38. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 Ok, let's get this party started! This is the updated Bombardier master-arm panel. As you can see, the switches have all been added. The guages are sitting in a box waiting to be installed... the 42 section team have come a long way on this! Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 I thought this was kind of cool... this is part of the Turret fire control system interface (un-restored obviously). We have two of these boxes unrestored at the moment and in our "valuable parts" storage trailer we have two complete FCS computers (if you can call them that) that are in like-new condition. I don't know where those came from, probably just refurbished though. This particular B-29 had some or all of it's guns removed when it became a Radar-carrying plane (as I said, a very early predecessor to our modern AWACS aircraft), so these (only one in the picture) came from a different plane. Again, I'm not sure where. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 This is a Transceiver/Receiver combo... again, unrestored. I'm not sure if we're going to use this one or not, as I think we have some better condition units stored back in the Trailer. This B-29, will of course be outfitted with a modern radio system, but the old Radio equipment will be made to at least appear to be pristine. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 This is the engineering station. They're getting ready to re-wire a lot of stuff (as if you couldn't tell). There will be a WALL of guages just behind all of those levers when it's restored. The guage box has been completely restored, but I don't know about the guages themselves. Just aft of this (to the right in the pic) is the navigator's station. Just forward (to the left) is the bulkhead and then the cockpit. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 This is taken from sitting at the rear bulkhead (directly forward of the bomb bays.. the Gun turret mechanism would be right where I am ) looking forward. To the right in the pic, the engineer's station, to the left the radio operator's station. Beyond the bulkhead of course is where the Pilot, co-Pilot, and Bombardier are. Unseen to my immediate right is the Navigator's station. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 Here are the wing mainmounts. I believe we got in the parts we've been waiting on, so they are very nearly ready to go! Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 Here's most of the rubber, there's more not in the pic though. Tires are courtesy of Desser Tire out of Los Angeles. These things are friggin HUGE... In the very back of the picture, you can see the diesel trailer where we store most of the restored or new parts that haven't gone on the plane yet. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 This is standing under the port side of the centerwing (at the #1 engine nacelle) looking inboard. The wing is probably the least worked on part of the plane right now. It is the project manager's hope that the centerwing will be completed enough to drop into the Fuselage so the wheels can be attached and the plane rolled to the new hangar on it's own wheels. He says it can be done, the project engineers say he's sniffing too much tenax. :) :D Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 Last one for tonight... This pic is taken from the bomber fuselage (at the rear door where the tailgunner and rear crew enter the plane) and gives a better overall idea of the wing. As you can see, it's got a long way to go! :) More pics later on, and maybe even some news this Saturday morning when I go in! Stay tuned! Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted April 4, 2005 Author Share Posted April 4, 2005 A small update for now... They've given us until sometime in May in this current hangar before we're supposed to move down on the other end of the runway (the southern end), so we're hoping to be ready to install the center-wing by the time we move. Here you can see that we've pulled out the bomb-bay doors (not sure why we have 5... I'm guessing one will be thrown out) that will be worked on very soon: Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted April 4, 2005 Author Share Posted April 4, 2005 Here is the fixture that a door will be fastened to as it's restored. I don't know who makes our custom frames for each part, but I believe they will all go into the hangar that the USAM is supposedly going to build for the plane. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted April 4, 2005 Author Share Posted April 4, 2005 Now I'll begin a basic overview of our hangar as it looks right now. We start on the far left (by the door), you can see the engine shop and the parts crib (both restored and un-restored) Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted April 4, 2005 Author Share Posted April 4, 2005 A little further right and you have the fuselage. The landing gear shop is behind and to the left of that and the center-wing shop is in the very back. Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted April 4, 2005 Author Share Posted April 4, 2005 even further right and we have the fuselage work shop (closest), the outer wing/h-stab/v-stab workshop behind that, "Doc's Doublewide" (parts storage), and scrap-metal in the far right rear corner. Unseen immediately to my right is the tool-crib and the waste-disposal area beyond that Link to post Share on other sites
Skull Leader Posted June 14, 2005 Author Share Posted June 14, 2005 meh, it's still here. My cable to attach my camera to my computer is stuck back in Arkansas (at least until this weekend), but I'll get more pics up soon. The plane is coming along nicely! Link to post Share on other sites
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