A group of Edwards AFB aircraft
maintainers recently joined efforts to restore a historic aircraft
for the Air Force Flight Test Center museum.
A team of 36 maintainers from the 412th Equipment Maintenance
Squadron's corrosion control, armament, structural maintenance,
inspection flight and fabrication flight and from the 31st Test and
Evaluation Squadron worked weekends and nights for more than three
months to restore an F-106 Delta Dart in time for display at the
2005 Edwards Open House and Air Show.
Maj. Matt Humes, 412th Equipment Maintenance Squadron commander,
said he got the idea to restore the jet after flying over the area
in an Aero Club aircraft and seeing it stored behind the ammunition
storage facility on the south side of the base. Once he presented
the restoration idea to his maintainers, it was in their hands.
"Typical of my entire squadron, they were so enthusiastic and
motivated it made my head spin," the commander said.
The Delta Dart's journey to restoration started with Airmen from
the 412th EMS Transient Alert pulling it out of about 8 inches of
asphalt, which it had sunk into over the years, and towing the
aircraft to the corrosion control facility.
The next step was to put back to the way it looked when it was
assigned to the 329th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at George Air
Force Base, Calif., which had an alert detachment at Edwards in
1960. Since the aircraft's last operational assignment was as a
drone at Tyndall AFB, Fla., it was equipped with an array of
special equipment that had to come off.
"We removed all the drone equipment, all the antennas and
receivers," said Master Sgt. Donald Ward, 412th EMS superintendent.
"There was all sorts of exterior stuff that wasn't original."
Members of the 412th EMS and 31st TES devoted many off-duty
hours to restore the aircraft to the original 329th FIS colors.
"All told, we put in more than 1,300 man-hours, working weekends
and evenings to get the airplane ready," said Tech. Sgt. Phil
Gearhardt , a corrosion control section chief, who led the team in
the restoration.
Some of the tasks involved were very labor intensive, such as
spending hours on the Internet researching the plane's original
markings. He credits Airman 1st Class Joshua Schreiner with all the
graphics on the plane.
"(Airman Schreiner) had to recreate all the plane's markings
from fuzzy old photos," Sergeant Gearhardt said.
Sergeant Gearhardt also complimented Staff Sgt. Jeremy Strack.
"When we got the aircraft, the radome was absolutely chewed up,"
Sergeant Gearhardt said. "(Sergeant Strack) took off all the old
coating, did the body filler, primed and painted the radome. It
looked beautiful and authentic."
One thing stressed by the commander and the two NCOs was that
this project was completed by squadron volunteers during their own
off-duty time, and they painted the aircraft with paint that was no
longer useful and would have otherwise ended up being thrown away.
During the restoration, the corrosion control facility still
re-painted three other aircraft and several equipment items. Once
the aircraft was complete, one final touch was added -- a
locally-designed logo showing a knight holding a dart.
It's called "The Knight's Dart" as a tribute to the 412th EMS
Knights, according to Maj. Humes. The names of all the people who
restored it will be stenciled near the logo.
"Our squadron will be rolling up its flag due to
reorganization," he said. "I wanted these volunteers to be able to
bring their grandchildren out 20 years from now, point at their
names and have the kids say 'That's neat, Grandpa.'"
The Knight's Dart will eventually be towed to the west gate on
Rosamond Boulevard, where it will be joined by an F-100, F-101,
F-102 and an F-104 as part of a century series fighter display.
[ANN Salutes Christopher Ball, 95th Air Base Wing Public
Affairs]