(Happily adapted from material in Final Cut: The Post-War B-17 Flying Fortress)

The Task At Hand

After purchasing the remains of XC-108 41-2595 in 1985, Mike Kellner faced the monumental task of gathering the various pieces of the historic plane from the overgrown woods, transporting them from Maine to his home in Illinois, and somehow amassing the financial and logistical means to reconstruct the bomber. On the first two items he has been successful. The entire airplane was moved to the local airport at Galt, Illinois, with all but the fuselage stored in enclosed trailers. The problems of restoring the bomber have obviously been a much tougher nut to crack. Beyond the obviously poor condition of the airframe and the lack of readily available parts for the B-17E, Mike  had to establish financial backing and find people with the technical expertise to pull the airplane together.

The Project Moves to Marengo, Illinois

After several years of work at Galt, the project was moved to Marengo, Illinois, in 1995. There, Kellner put up a large building that allowed most of the airplane to be kept indoors. Several years later, the building was expanded to get all parts out of the elements. Since the fuselage was cut into eight pieces, the basic structure required attention and numerous longerons and stringers needed to be repaired or replaced. The aluminum extrusions for the longerons were not available, so they were custom manufactured. Almost every skin panel was corroded, damaged or missing, and had to be replaced. Many parts have been hand-built and heat treated. Each part of the restoration process has been inspected and documented to FAA airworthiness standards to ensure the airplane can be properly certified at the completion of the massive effort.

Fuselage Work

Kellner and his wife, Cheryl, have organized a group of volunteers to work on the airplane. Although work is slow, significant progress has been made. By 2004, the cargo door had been removed and replaced with a standard B-17E waist structure and window. The fuselage from bulkhead 6 to 7 was repaired and completely reskinned by the end of 2005. Extrusions were run and stretch form dies created for bulkhead #3, which is located just forward of the cockpit. These parts were formed and used to replace the badly damaged originals in 2006.

The keel and cockpit longerons were replaced, allowing the nose section to be reattached to the forward fuselage in June of 2007. New wing carry through spars were drawn, heat treated, and magnetically inspected in 2008 and 2009. Extrusions were manufactured and milled for the reconstruction of the horizontal stabilizer spar caps. Parts of the stinger tail gun enclosure were completed in Tom Wilson’s shop at Sugar Hill, Georgia, while the gun mount hardware and sighting equipment was built by Ray Moore in North Carolina and Stuart Byers in Pennsylvania. Seats, ammunition boxes, and other equipment are being fabricated in Marengo.
The group worked closely with Tom Wilson to reproduce structural parts to the original Boeing specifications—not an easy task 75 years later.

In the past few years, more visible progress has been made. The fuselage structure is essentially complete, save a few remaining small tasks. The life raft doors that close the life raft compartment on the turtledeck structure above the wings were reskinned. Some additional skin riveting was also done around the nose compartment hatch. The ball turret area and the camera compartment are mostly rebuilt. The vertical stabilizer is completed save for some skin work remaining on one side. Both horizontal stabilizers are complete. The restoration team has two rudders that are completed, one coming from the original XC-108A and the other from the Shoo Shoo Baby restoration. The tail wheel unit is also installed after mounting structure repairs were completed.

Wings

As for the wings, the outer wing panels have been disassembled. Spar repairs are required and then wing ribs, some having been repaired, will be reattached. The corrugated sub skin will then be reattached and new outer skin fitted and riveted to the structure. Both wing tips are repaired and almost completely reassembled. The inner wing panels are also being worked on, with nacelle work needed to repair damaged areas. Internal wing structure is also being repaired as needed to bring the wings to an airworthy condition. These wing sections are the original B-17E wings from the XC-108A.

The team also had an inner wing panel recovered from the Shoo Shoo Baby restoration project but it was sold to the restoration effort underway to rebuild B-17G 44-85734 underway at Douglas, Georgia. As for engines and propellers, the team holds engine cores but they are trying to trade around for the correct version of the Wright R-1820 engine. Though the B-17E used R-1820-65 engines, the restored B-17E will most likely have the more available R-1820-97 that powered the B-17F and B-17G installed. The earlier ‘toothpick’ bladed B-17E style propellers should be relatively easy to obtain as the DC-3 uses similar propellers. The engines and propeller components are all available but at great cost, so steps to obtain or overhaul these items must be carefully planned and funded.

As can be seen, the major structural work to the B-17E is far along and the restoration team is looking down the road towards the next steps. The aircraft systems have yet to be installed, but efforts are underway toward that complex task. All the electrical, fuel, hydraulic, and control systems will be reinstalled as per the original Boeing drawings, so the information is available. Wiring bundles will be assembled and threaded back through the structure to replicate the original B-17E. Control components are being gathered or new-built for installation.

Future Plans for 41-2595

At some point in the process, the project will have to be moved to a large hangar where the major components of the B-17E can be reassembled into a whole airplane. That point is still years away, but consideration is underway as to where that might be and how that process will be accomplished. In a project this large and complex, and with funding always meager, Mike Kellner always has his eyes open for opportunities.

Mike and volunteers Bill Stanczak and Chuck Giese were instrumental in promoting a cooperative effort amongst B-17 owners and operators to work together and produce new-build structure and parts to help keep the cost down and quality up. 

“Desert Rat” and/or “Tangarine”

Many years ago, while stripping paint from the nose section, the name Desert Rat emerged from beneath a few layers of paint so the airplane has now gained that moniker. It’s been assumed that the airplane was so dubbed during its use as a trainer at Walla Walla, Washington, in early 1942. Another nose panel was cleaned up and revealed the name Tangerine, probably from the Johnny Mercer song that topped the charts in 1942. In any event, the airplane will be restored to a B-17E configuration with turrets and other equipment reinstalled. Team volunteer Chase Smith’s efforts to retrieve XC-108 information from the National Archives has helped in that regard, identifying changes and parts made during the conversion.

B-17E Paint Scheme

The planned paint scheme will be the standard AAF olive drab and gray with early style insignia to replicate the airplane as it was originally delivered from Boeing. The name Desert Rat will be reapplied as nose markings.
The standard Army Air Corps insignia was applied to the bare metal aft fuselage, a striking addition that drives home the point that this project has made major progress in the past few years. It had to have been a major morale builder for the restoration team as work continues on the airplane.

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