Ken wrote:
I am equally disappointed and share some of the same frustrations. From working on another project recently, I do have some insight. "My opinion only".
The NASM folks had a trip scheduled in early 2020 to go measure SSSB and prepare the airplane for moving. C-19 shut the whole thing down. That said, I don't know where SSSB was going once it arrived in DC. My guess is that it will go through a process similar to Flak Bait and it will be years before it goes on display. While this is frustrating, the guiding principle seems to be that, once it's on display, it won't get any attention for at least 100 years, so they are unlikely to simply assemble SSSB and display it as-is.
In Dayton, employees are fewer in number than I realized and the budget is much smaller than I ever thought possible. Assuming that I was given good info, the bulk of Memphis Belle was funded with donations from Boeing and other private sources. So, the reality, in my mind, is that something on the scale of Swoose will require a massive cash influx to tackle and an understanding that work on everything else will stop in the meantime, just as it did for Belle ... there are simply not enough employees to do more than one thing at a time.
Another aspect is project depth. There's a press release where they discuss scratch-fabrication of heaters for Belle - the units are out in the wing and will never be seen. No doubt, that's how an accurate restoration is done, but, given funding & time constraints, is that the best answer? I don't know.
The final piece of the puzzle is political attitude. I won't get into it, but you can imagine that leadership from way up, all the way down, sets priorities and pace. Absent some sort of national campaign (like Humane Society or Wounded Warriors) or a cash influx from someone like Elon Musk, I wouldn't expect any big changes.
Ken
Thanks for this insight. As always, it boils down to money. Something like the Belle attracts a lot of it from big pockets. It's good advertising to be associated with such a project. The more esoteric subjects lack the same luster. It's a shame, but we as warbird lovers should know, understand and be used to this by now. Regardless, I'd say whoever has run the NMUSAF over the last 15-20 years or so has done great work. They're light years ahead of where they were when I first visited as a kid in the 80s.
As to the NASM, they take an understandably longer view on things.
Of course, I wish both of them would get back to behind the scenes tours where the true airplane lovers - famous and odd and esoteric birds alike - could be more greatly appreciated.
Anyhoo. In the meantime I'll just enjoy the occasional photo from an insider that pops up here on occasion.
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...that the National Air Museum still doesn't have a B-17, of any type, on display.