LOL Ryguy totally stole my thunder!
As he said, the rear control surfaces are going on soon... additionally Jim is leaving town this weekend to check on the turret situation. The individual we're looking at purchasing these from is offering a complete set of fully functioning turrets (including a complete tail section... we don't need the tail section itself, per-say, but all we have right now is the bonnet for the turret mechanism itself, so the parts will be nice to have. The good news is, he's reverse engineered them and thus has the means to make more if the need ever arose (if say, one of ours got destroyed somehow and needed replacing, or if Fifi ever decided to put complete turrets back in theirs, he's got the means)
If they're going to get them... it had better be soon! I have a feeling things are about to pick up pace.
I worked the night crew last night. We pulled all of the high-speed tape off the rear of the fuselage where we had covered holes (to protect it while it had spent time outside) so our buffing guy could get it all. As Ryguy said, He's been working the tail over in preparation for hanging the elevators and rudder... and he's done an outstanding job! When this thing hits the sunlight, it's gonna blind SOMEBODY...
You can see where he's buffed and where he hasn't. This guy works across the ramp in one of Boeing's main hangars buffing the under side of Air Force One when it comes in for service... so he definitely knows what he's doing.
We spent a lot more of the night sorting out the liners for the fuel cells. The liners are fiberglass boards that go between the metal of the fuselage and the fuel cells themselves (presumably to cut down on static electricity?) The fuel cells lace into these and the fuselage with cord much like you might lace up a shoe. The problem is, we have the fuselage liners out of THREE different sets of wings, and we're still trying to determine if we have one complete set that isn't damaged. There are a ton of them, and they aren't all labelled clearly (we have all the parts numbers, but in many cases, the parts number is worn off or simply illegible. This is definitely one of the less enjoyable parts of working on the plane, but a vital one, as we're almost ready to put the fuel cells in.
We have a master blueprint of the wing hung on the fence next to them so we can sort them out by compartment as we find the serial number. Those we can't identify we'll either try to match by hand or toss and make new.
Also, three of our chief volunteers (TJ, Jim, and one other I can't remember) have been selected to go down and do a ground school with the Fifi guys... I wanted to go and would have, but the Fifi guys have to certify and train new crew of their own, so there's only so much room to send our people. It's just as well, I wasn't positive I could work the trip into my work schedule right now anyhow.
Also at some point, we're going to have to pry open the main landing gear doors again... we were inspecting all four and can hear FOD rattling around inside of all of them (most likely rivet heads or other small debris)... we hate that we have to take a step back to fix something that should've been done right the first time, but it's essential that we keep this aircraft FOD free. We'll probably get to that once we finish the bomb bay door and the bottom pan.
So that's your weekly update... next tuesday I expect to see considerable progress on the bottom pan, as we're nearly ready to shoot the new skin on to the frame.
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