Warbird Information Exchange

We have a new project in the museums shop. It's a U.S. Army Hiller OH-23D Raven helicopter. Factory serial number 994, U.S. Army serial number 57-3036. The plan is to restore it back to flying in it's original U.S. Army paint.

Nice project!

I wish you the best of success, with what looks like a very ambitious project.

Please keep us posted

Andy Scott

Here's a couple pics of the skid assemblies that I've been working on.

Good start

Going by memory here but, I believe it was a pair of these which were transported in early C-130's to the crash site in Libya of the Lady Be Good to aide in the search for the remains of the crew. Best wishes with the restoration.

Looks like you're starting from the ground up

Andy

Craig59, I will have to check into that. It probably would have been B or C model ones.

Andy, You could say that. I decided that it was the best way to start this project.

Now I've started taking out the radio racks and mapping out the electrical boxes and wiring.

I just saw some photos of a WWII German aircraft being restored & they used chalk blasting (same principal as soda blasting) on the electrical parts like breakers etc. They came out looking like new. They said the chalk isn't dust, it's more like glass beads. Not sure if chalk is available in the US like this though... but if not, soda will leave the same finish.
They also used the chalk on sheet metal which took all the crap & corrosion off, but pretty much left the original primer intact.

ZRX61,
I haven't seen the chalk blasting yet but I do know of the soda. I'm going to give the soda a shot and see how it does. Thanks!

The pics popped up on FaceBook, I'll see if I can find the link.

That didn't take long, hope the links work:
Before & after:


More here:

https://www.facebook.com/ju88Gardermoen?fref=ts

That is awesome!!! I can't believe how good those breakers came out. I also didn't know about the JU88 project either. I will be following that one. THANKS!

What a great project! Any updates?

Zac,

I'm still making a little progress on this project, snow and work have been keeping me away. I have put this project up for sale, so if you know anyone that might be interested, go to www.projectwarbird.com