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Desert Rat Update

Desert Rat Update

James Church, he of the great Warbirds Digest magazine, recently sent me some photos taken in January 2019 of the restoration effort underway at Marengo, Illinois, of B-17E 41-2595. This very-long term restoration effort, headed by Mike Kellner, is making slow but steady progress. There is also an Aero Vintage Forum topic on this restoration that has recent posts by long-time restoration team member Bill Stanczak that has additional current information and photos of the progress being made at Marengo. That forum posting can be found right here.

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The fuselage of B-17E 41-2595 in its January 2019 state. Not much visible external progress since most of the current work is going on inside the fuselage.

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Inside the nose compartment of the B-17E. The complexity of the restoration effort is quite evident.

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The stinger tail gun position being completed for the B-17E. As can be seen, a ways to go to completion for this assembly.

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The early style framed nose was used on the B-17B through B-17E in much the same form. Bill Stanczak reports that the plexiglas sections that will be reinstalled are being fabricated at this time. The only other surviving B-17 that has this type of framed nose is the B-17D, s/n 40-3097, held by the NMUSAF.

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The early-style Sperry top turret dome for the B-17E project awaits attention. Not sure of the source for this dome…I would imagine that Bill Stanczak will chime in at some point with more information on it.

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The left inner wing section on a stand undergoing restoration and rebuilding. The restoration team has the original inner wing panels from the XC-108A/B-17E recovery, and this is one of them. The wings obviously need much work, but they did not suffer the same structural damage as did the fuselage in the original effort made to scrap the airplane. B-17E inner wing panels are a rare commodity these days and the Desert Rat effort is fortunate in having both available.

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One of the outer wing panels with work underway in repair and reskinning. This is also one of the original XC-108A/B-17E panels.

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