Will Be Housed Outdoors Until Temporary Hangar Is Ready
Aero-News has learned "Doc," a restored WWII-era B-29
Superfortress, rolled to its new home Tuesday. The massive bomber
will soon be displayed at the Kansas Aviation Museum.
"It's wonderful," said Connie Palacioz, 82, who worked as a
riveter at Boeing's Wichita, KS plant during World War II. "I'd
like to see it when it flies. We'll do our part. We have to keep
the project going."
Palacioz is among a group of volunteers who have helped bring
the storied B-29 -- which was part of a squadron of planes named
after characters in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, according to
the Wichita Eagle -- to the museum.
The plane (shown above, photo from September 2006) will
reside outdoors temporarily, until a temporary canvas enclosure is
constructed.
"It means a great deal to me," said Dori Almire, another
volunteer on the project. "All my family was in the service during
World War II, and I had an uncle in Guam who saw B-29s fly overhead
all the time. It's part of history."
As Aero-News reported in
December, the museum will soon begin a fundraising
program to construct a permanent 40,000-square-foot hangar. That
facility -- which will cost around $4 million, according to museum
director Teresa Day -- will house "Doc" and other vintage
planes.
The move from Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems plant to the
aviation museum was not a simple task. Cliff Gaston -- project
manager for the United States Aviation Museum in Wickliffe, OH,
which owns the plane -- took it upon himself to clear a path ahead
of the bomber. He kicked rocks out of the way, and made sure the
ground was as smooth as possible.
"The tires are $1,859 apiece," Gaston explained.
Gaston and volunteers alike are concerned with "Doc" having to
spend time outdoors, unprotected from the elements, before the
temporary hangar is ready. Springtime is around the corner... and
in Kansas, that often means thunderstorms and hail.
"The upper skin is pretty soft," Gaston said. "The wing is
pretty solid, but the fuselage and horizontal and vertical
stabilizers -- hail will just eat 'em up. That really bothers
me."
A chain-link fence surrounds the plane, to keep onlookers from
touching the plane's gleaming aluminum skin. At night, officers
from Boeing and McDonnell Air Force Base will provide security at
the site.
Volunteers said "Doc" still needs fuel bladders, and its engines
will need to be rebuilt before it can take to the skies again. That
will take at least two more years, they added.