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Odds & Ends
As longtime followers know, most of our volunteers work from home. I am not an exception. My home is a geographical oddity – three hours from everywhere. Last week saw visits to both the hangar and to Fred Bieser, the turret restoration expert. It was exhausting but worth it! First up is some progress in […]
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Odds & Ends
Some truly incredible donations to share regarding our work on Boeing B-17F Lucky Thirteen. First, the armor plate for the cockpit door has finally arrived. This piece comes to us from Sam Coleman and Paul Teal, the admins of the RAF Grafton Underwood WW2 Memories Facebook page. Not only is this piece rare (we know […]
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B-17F Amplified Checklist
The Boeing B-17 is legendary for its role in the creation of the pilots’ checklist. In the early years of the Great Depression, Boeing struggled to compete with Douglas, whose DC-3 airliner managed to keep the company from going under. While the Model 299 (the prototype for the B-17) had to be built with borrowed […]
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B-17E Questionnaire
This test was transcribed from a wartime original donated to us by our friend Howard Lawson of Jacksonville, Florida. Use the toggle bar below each question to read the answers. Note that the test concerns an E-model B-17, and as such, the questions and answers are not always in line with the more common F […]
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B-17E Radio Equipment Final Examination
This test was transcribed from a wartime original donated to us by our friend Howard Lawson of Jacksonville, Florida. Use the toggle bar below each question to read the answers. Because the test was not graded and no answer key was present, we have asked volunteers to proof the information below. FINAL EXAMINATION FOR RADIO […]
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Visiting the New England Air Museum
Eric Miller of Project Warbird and I have just returned from a trip to Windsor Locks, Connecticut, visiting the New England Air Museum. 19 hours on the road between South Carolina and Connecticut. The NEAM has been friends of ours for a long time and director Nick Hurley is soon to leave the museum, taking […]
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On The Loss Of A Friend
There was never a time in my life when I was not fascinated by the B-17. I often tell people that it was meant to be, as Memphis Belle premiered on my fourth birthday, 12 October 1990. And my parents did everything they could to satiate that interest. Flight sims, models, air shows, and many, […]
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Odds & Ends
An eclectic assortment of Lucky Thirteen updates: First up is the last of the phenolic instrument panels – the bombardier’s oxygen panel. This one presented a greater challenge than the other oxygen panels. Not only was it larger than the others, but it was also the first panel in the project for which the blueprints […]
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Lucky Thirteen’s Turrets In Detail, Pt. 2
LUCKY THIRTEEN‘S NEEDS To pick up where I left off on the last turret article: The Sperry ball turret’s recognizability is its biggest enemy. As mentioned before, most of today’s surviving warbirds which still have turrets only managed to do so by creating Frankenstein amalgamations. But unlike the A-1 Upper Turret, not only does the […]
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Lucky Thirteen’s Turrets In Detail, Pt. 1
Lucky Thirteen‘s Needs When it comes to rebuilding Lucky Thirteen, there are two aspects of the project more difficult than any other: wing spars and turrets. Today we are going to focus on the latter. For much of the postwar history of Second World War aircraft, powered gun turrets were an afterthought. They were heavy, […]
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