Aero Vintage Books

We've now caught up to the current state of the restoration. A couple more pictures to add to those that started this thread: The forward crew entry door will go here. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Labrador%20B-17/DSC01876.jpg Looking in the door opening, you can see the equipm...

We continued working our way towards the nose. We received Bulkheads 1 & 2 from Hang the Expense, which allowed us to start rivetting the nose together. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Labrador%20B-17/IMG_0152.jpg Bulkhead 1 with assembly form. The form is stout enough that we ca...

Work continued on bulkhead 3 and the flight deck, while we started work on the Circumfrential Stiffeners (ribs), Longitudinal Stiffeners (stringers), and skin. The original skin was pop rivetted together to verify the new construction. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Labrador%20B...

And that was about it for the first trip. There was one interruption for a couple of days when we went down to Kissimee, Fl to watch the maiden flight of the Liberty Belle. Mike and I did come back in January of '05 to clean out the fuselage and outboard wings. I have pictures, but never bothered to...

Landing gear and engines waiting to go to the storage building. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Douglas/46Site02.jpg Once the gear was out, it was time to strip the nacelles. The oil tank and the pile in front all came out of Nacelle #3. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/c...

Now that we know what we're doing, the right wing went much easier. Attach the straps... http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Douglas/42WingR22.jpg ... Lift it up, gear falls off .... http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Douglas/43WingR23.jpg ... Chuck guides it back do...

A little work with a pry bar, and down it came. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Douglas/18WingR18.jpg After looking at it for a while, we decided that the easiest way to take this apart was to remove the landing gear and wheel as one unit. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147...

A good view of the internal ductwork. You could grab a piece and shake it free. The only part of the disassembly that went easy. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Douglas/14WingR11.jpg After the duct work was out of the way, we dropped the turbocharger. http://i303.photobucket.com/...

Use the forklift to rotate tank, & out it comes. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Douglas/09WingR07.jpg One tank down.... The major structure of the wing is in very good shape. Spots of corrosion where the mussles attacked the thinner metal, but we saw no major damage to the ribs ...

The Labrador B-17 work site. We worked on the fuselage and the inboard wing panels that you see here. It was a beautiful location. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Douglas/00Site01.jpg The right wing as it came off of the truck from Canada. Our job was to remove everything from in...

Back in November 2004, Mike Kellner and I went to Douglas (I didn't move here until 2006) to help disassemble the Labrador B-17. I had posted these pictures to a web site that no longer exists. So, with Scott's permission, I'll repost them here. This was the earlier days of the interwebs, so they ar...

Might be easier to run yourself...

Since the B-17s in the "Limited" category are all Fs and Gs, there may be a problem getting Mike's "E" model a Limited cert (Let alone a "C"). Just another hurdle to jump. Bill, I was reading through the B-25 News for January 2012 (a little late, but so is my response to this thread) and saw the fo...

We decided to start with the rebuild of Bulkhead 3 while waiting for the new carry through spars for bulkheads 4 & 5. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn147/cgiese0001/Labrador%20B-17/IMG_0035.jpg While that was going on, we also used the existing Labrador B-17 heavy structures to make sure the ji...

If this was a movie, the old guy on the restoration team would take a deep draw on his pipe, and the exhaled smoke would start the flashback to the early days. Instead, I'll just throw a few pictures at ya..... The build started in earnest when we received the forward fuselage jig. (See Jig construc...