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Posture Chairs
When war broke out in Europe in 1939, Boeing drastically redesigned the B-17 for the realities of an offensive campaign. While the B-17C/B-17D had a whopping nine aluminum bucket seats, the B-17E entered service with six, of which three were almost always removed prior to combat. Two of these seats were auxiliary stations in the radio […]
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Fabric & Insulation
When we began rebuilding Lucky Thirteen we did so knowing that at some point we would have to deal with the bomber’s internal fabric and insulation. Few surviving aircraft of the Second World War still have their internal fabric and even fewer are airworthy. Still, up until late in the F-series, the Boeing B-17 had […]
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Odds & Ends
I must also admit that a lot of my recent work has been on small components that do not exactly warrant individual articles. Still, many of our followers are not on Facebook, and I would hate to deprive them of an opportunity to see these little additions. So here is a post detailing some of […]
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Airframe Progress
Time for another gallery post. Eric Miller of Project Warbird has been up helping rivet together bomb-bay pieces for Lucky Thirteen and Liberty Belle. For Lucky Thirteen, this includes finishing the bomb-bay’s upper right longeron, which is another original piece out of 44-83316. Because of corrosion, a portion of the longeron had to be replaced […]
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B-17 Survivors
This post is meant to be something of a public service. You see, few subjects are as popular amongst the general public as the Second World War, and this is doubly true of Second World War aviation. While this is a good thing, as popular support is essential for organizations like us, there is often […]
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Interior Doors
As we have been posting updates, I am sure some of you are wondering what we mean by “Station 4,” “Station 5,” etc. It takes some time to get used to. Essentially, what we are referring to are the cylindrical pieces of the airframe, which are sequentially numbered from nose to tail. Included amongst the […]
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Airframe Progress
While we try to make regular updates on the Facebook page, a lot of people don’t care for Facebook. We understand that. So, here are some of the pictures featured on Facebook which show our progress since 2013. Along with our pictures of our work on Lucky Thirteen are pictures of Liberty Belle (44-85734), on which […]
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VHF Antenna Mounts
One of the most enjoyable aspects of this restoration has been rediscovering the craftsmanship of a bygone era. Recently, Charlie was able to track down the final pieces of the SCR-522 VHF radio system. Aside from wiring, we now have everything we need to start restoring the VHF to operational condition. This is a fascinating […]
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Relief Tube
One of the questions we are most often asked is “How did airmen go to the bathroom at 30,000 ft?” Well, the answer is not easily and certainly not happily. Aircraft of the Second World War were not far removed from today’s combat aircraft in regard to toilet facilities. The difference here was not the […]
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Oxygen Bottles
One of the most numerous components needed in Lucky Thirteen’s restoration are the airplane’s oxygen bottles.
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