marc wiese wrote:

It is an unforgettable place. Years ago, I was fortunate enough to

attend a

week long "restoration class" at that facility. We spend a lot of time

just

re-anodizing the bolts to the correct Japanese WWII OEM colors for a

Jake

that was under restoration. (You might suspect that corrosion control is

a

big deal there!) The highlight for me was to help rivet up the atomic

bomb

rack (original one missing, but they had the plans) for the Enola Gay,
which was sitting inside w/o wings. Seeing a wooden Nazi twin jet

powered

flying wing that looked like a pancake in one dark corner was icing on

the

cake.
You must visit the place, it is better than the museum downtown.

 Mark Waldron wrote:

Marc,
  When I toured the facility, they made an interesting point:  a major
portion of their work is preventing bimetalic corrosion between steel rivets
and aluminum acft skins/structure.  The designers/builders weren't
negligent, just realistic.  When the average B-24 could expect to survive
just 30-40 missions (IIRC), assuring the structure would last for years was
just not a priority.  A sobering thought--the math was a daily reality for
aircrews.

Mark

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