B-26 Flak Bait Restoration?

[APG85]

Is Flak Bait undergoing restoration? An article in the newest edition of Air & Space (on items found in aircraft during restorations) refers to work being done on the aft fuselage of Flak Bait. Just wondering if this means that they are getting it ready for re-assembly and display?

[tom d. friedman]

i thought it was already restored.

[Matt Gunsch]

it has never been restored, the paint on it is from WWII

[Steve Nelson]

Oh god...I hope the "work" they're doing doesn't include stripping the paint and "restoring" the structure. That aircraft is an absolute time capsule and should..no MUST be preserved and assembled as-is!

SN

[The Inspector]

100% agreement with Mr. Nelson!!!! 'restoring' it would be like having teams of people shine up the Statue of Liberty to get rid of that awful sickly green coating-
Slide the halves together, grab a bucket full of rivets and put the halves together, they didn't do anything special to the RYAN NYP did they? Did a team show up and Simonize the X-15? (still my favorite aircraft)
Quit messing with history to make it more palatable to the new thinkers and tree lickers!!

[ZeamerB17]

Blow the dust off her, bolt her back together and put her on display AS IS! 8)
That is all that is necessary, IMHO.

[APG85]

I would assume that any work being done would be similar to the P-61 "clean-up and preservation" job Vs restoration. I would just like to know if such an effort is underway?

[JDK]

Gentlemen - The word is 'conserve', rather than 'restore' or even 'dust'.

There's a lot more than dusting down etc. to retaining originality - and that's to do with ensuring that the degradation of the artefact is slowed as far as possible* for as long as possible while retaining as much of the original material in as original condition as possible. Given the originality of the aircraft, I don't think we need worry about them giving it a coat of fresh paint ~ after a good strip.

A bit of Googling on 'museum conservation' will explain this process and requirement very well.

Cheers,

(*Electrolysis, dissimilar metal corrosion, metal crystallisation, moisture & magnesium alloy, the long-term effects of Zinc Chromate paints, rubber and other natural material degradation, the effects of human grease (from touching) over time on metal and paint, etc. being examples.)

Last edited by JDK on Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Broken-Wrench]

Naw, just blow the dust off! Our museums have roofs, walls and are climate controled.

[Steve Nelson]

Well said, JDK. Conserve were possible, restore only where absolutely necessary. Of course, some work will need to be done to arrest and prevent deterioration, but the aircraft should be left as original as possible.

I could live with it if they touched up the paint here and there where it was damaged during disassembly and storage, as long as the repairs aren't jarringly obvious. As I recall there's a nasty bare metal patch on the nose in the the only place visitors could actually manage to touch.

Does anyone know what kind of shape the control surfaces are in? The original fabric may be too far gone for display, making re-skinning necessary (although the original fabric should be kept as an historical artifact.) The original tires may be too badly deteriorated to support the aircraft as well.

SN

[mike furline]

I kind of like Flak Bait just as it is. You can walk right up next to it, look in the cockpit, look fwd into the fuselage, etc.

Once it's put back together, no one will ever get to see what an unrestored original WWII B-26 looks like on the inside.

Regards,

[mustangdriver]

SHe is being put back together and is being preserved, not restored. No new paint, just being put back in one piece. THe NASM was "Put on notice" that Flak Bait was to be reassembled or moved by the NMUSAF. Yes somewhere some how we still own it. I heard that first hand at the monthly meeting. Whether or not she will be moved back to Dayton is still a secret I guess. I have heard nothing of that.

[n5151ts]

they might as well just make it out of fiberglass.......

IMHO of course

[sgt hawk]

She either belongs in the Smithsonian (assembled as is) or in Dayton (assembled as is). I believe that aircraft has to much "Historical Value" to be stored, and should be on "Public" display.

[DoraNineFan]

Gentlemen - The word is 'conserve', rather than 'restore' or even 'dust'.

There's a lot more than dusting down etc. to retaining originality - and that's to do with ensuring that the degradation of the artefact is slowed as far as possible* for as long as possible while retaining as much of the original material in as original condition as possible. Given the originality of the aircraft, I don't think we need worry about them giving it a coat of fresh paint ~ after a good strip.

Now should this apply to say, the NASM Ta-152, which received one or more coats of paint after it was captured and evaluated--and which has gone through some amount of deterioration in storage? (And the Horten is pretty awful shape, too.)

I have a book on the restoration of the Fw190A-8 and I was impressed with how much work was put into it, including stripping the original paint and painting it in the best representation of colors it wore during it's combat history. The final result is a gleaming example inside and out-more than just "pickled" as-is. I hope the Ta-152 is given the same amount of work, including sanding through layers of paint and infrared photography to finalize the original identity, colors, and markings. (For that matter, I think the D-9 in Dayton could use some freshening up, too.)