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Memphis Belle Reborn Again

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Memphis Belle Reborn Again RESTORED some assembly required Clockwise from left: The B-17 is readied for restoration; a control wheel center cap; Belle’s nose art was modeled after a George Petty pinup. be seen by most museum visitors. It’s that level of detail—a hallmark of this lat- est restoration—that elevates Memphis Belle as an iconic artifact from World War II. Thanks to William Wyler’s wartime documentary about the bomber, shot using color Kodachrome film, a wealth of contemporary color imag- ready for display The Boeing B-17F ery of Belle survives. Using Memphis Belle, fresh from its restoration. many photos and film clips, Below: Museum specialist Roger Brigner the museum team labored works on the Norden bombsight mount. over the correct placement and color of all the bomber’s markings. Once the B-17 was stripped down to bare metal, Simmons found a memphis Belle faint scribe line that exactly matched the outline of the reborn again pin-up art on the nose. To get it just right, the AFTER YEARS OF EXPOSURE TO repainting of Memphis Belle THE ELEMENTS, THE MOST ICONIC in Dayton was much more was a very big help to us,” arduous, deliberate and BOMBER OF WORLD WAR II HAS said museum restoration time-consuming than it had BEEN METICULOUSLY RESTORED specialist Casey Simmons. been during the war. The Simmons figures the museum team pondered a AND DISPLAYED AT ITS PERMANENT bomber today has about 90 complicated reconciliation NEW HOME to 95 percent of its original of wartime wear and tear wartime metal. Working on with aesthetic considerations BY FREDERICK A. JOHNSEN the B-17 was far more than as they prepared to paint just another job for him. the bomber. Belle is logically ome aircraft are restored once-and-done. The famed the Memphis Belle Memo- Memphis Belle display on from locally based Federal funding for the Memphis Simmons said he sometimes displayed with all its mission B-17F Flying Fortress Memphis Belle has undergone rial Committee to care for Mud Island in the Mississippi Express was probing the museum would fall short, had to take a couple steps symbols and markings, as several treatments over the years, ranging from quick the famed bomber. In the River in downtown Mem- B-17’s structure and replac- the B-17 was transported to back during the restoration it appeared at the end of its facelifts to an earnest refurbishing in Memphis in the 1970s and into the 1980s, phis. A grand dedication ing corroded metal with new the Air Force museum at the process and look at the sto- combat tour in May 1943. S1980s. In its latest and likely last debut, the celebrated the renamed Memphis ceremony on May 17 of that aluminum. It was, by local MBMA’s request. It’s worth ried bomber just to let it sink By that time, however, bomber emerged fresh from the well-equipped shops at the Belle Memorial Association year included a flyover of accounts, the best restoration remembering that the only in that this was the famous the aircraft had small but National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. (MBMA) did everything seven B-17s as well as mod- Belle had received in its half- reason Belle exists today is the Memphis Belle. visible nicks and gaps in its Memphis Belle might easily have joined thousands of surplus from cosmetic touch-ups to ern Air Force bombers. century existence. enduring efforts of a handful Today Belle features camouflage, as well as fading warplanes that were unceremoniously scrapped at war’s end. beginning an earnest refur- A giant umbrella-like But all those professional of Memphis citizens going rubber de-icer boots on the from hours in the sun. The Delivered to Oklahoma’s Altus Army Airfield in August 1945, bishing of the old airframe. canopy kept the rain off the airframe and engine spe- back to 1946. leading edges of the wings paint and markings applied the bomber was parked with rows of B-17s and B-24s, the vast But Belle remained outdoors, bomber, but not the pigeons cialists, and all the MBMA Building on the work and tail, just as it had in to Belle in Dayton represent majority of which were quickly salvaged. But when Belle came again at the Memphis air- or general humidity. Alumi- supporters, were not enough completed at Memphis, the 1943. Those aren’t available an earnest effort to replicate to the attention of the mayor of its namesake city in Tennessee, port. The MBMA’s mem- num corrosion slowly took to keep Belle in Memphis. museum’s restoration team anymore, but original manu- the right colors, but without a $350 transfer title gained Memphis possession of the combat bers, especially Memphis its toll. The MBMA knew Efforts to raise funds for an continued the search for cor- facturer BFGoodrich made a the bare spots and oil stains of veteran Fortress. surgeon Harry Friedman, better accommodations had enclosed museum fell short. rosion, replacing more struc- brand-new set—not airwor- 1943. The fabric color on the Flown to the Memphis airport in 1946, Belle remained scoured the countryside to be found. The relationship between ture before reassembling and thy, but a dead ringer. rudder is deliberately lighter parked there until 1950, when a huge concrete plinth was for parts to make the B-17 In 2002 Belle traveled Memphis Belle’s Tennessee painting Belle. Some of the Simmons fabricated a than the rest of the olive made for the B-17 at the city’s Army National Guard armory. authentic and complete. by truck to a hangar at the backers and the National Memphis supporters worked missing glycol heater, using drab, in keeping with photos Belle stood proud, if increasingly ragged, over the next two and By 1987, the MBMA and former Memphis Naval Air Museum of the U.S. Air with museum staff to locate some original fittings and of Memphis Belle at the end of a half decades of exposure to the elements until that armory the city had raised enough Station. By the following Force has ranged from parts and assist the team with replicating the rest, just so it its combat tour. The finished was vacated in 1977. money and poured in enough year, a team of profes- cordial to contentious. By information on previous res- could be installed inside the product is a respectful take on Meanwhile, in 1967 booster Frank Donofrio had organ ized work to dedicate a new sional aircraft mechanics PHOTOS: U.S. AIR FORCE 2005, when it was apparent torations. “Harry Friedman structure, where it will never a national icon of WWII. 14 AH november 2018 november 2018 AH 15.
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