Many of you will know that we are restoring the complete airframe of a North American B-25 Mitchell, fondly known as the “Bedsheet Bomber” B-25J-25-NC-44-30861.
The team has been beavering away and excellent progress is being made on the cockpit, outboard wings and rudders.
Work on repairing corrosion around the canopy section is making excellent progress with one side complete and the other side well on the way to completion. Meanwhile the rear Navigators position has been receiving a lot of work in chasing out corrosion, replacing rotten stringers etc. Once the work on the upper deck of the cockpit section is complete we are planning on constructing a roll over jig so that we can “roll” the cockpit section onto its side to examine the under belly and front wheel bay. This will allow easier access for the team to begin corrosion repairs on this section of the cockpit.
Meanwhile another team has restored both rudders which were badly damaged and corroded and both are now hung on the workshop wall in pride of place awaiting refit. These will need to be covered with fabric but this will be done just prior to them being refitted to the tail fins. This team will soon be moving onto the next piece of the jigsaw puzzle and careful consideration is ongoing to what this section will be.
An aircraft is not an aircraft without wings and here at Wings the team has taken on a monumental job of restoring the outboard wing sections which were in bad shape. Over the past few years the lower skins have been removed to allow the repair and replacement of rotten ribs and stringers. This phase is now complete on both wings and work in now concentrating on the leading edges which could not be accessed before as the wings were stored in an upright position. Now each wing is taking its turn to be laid flat so that the leading edge panel can be removed and repaired. One wing is now nearly 100% completed and in the next month or two the second wing will be laid flat to allow its leading edge panels to be restored.
We still have a long way to go, but excellent progress has been made in what is an incredibly challenging project and we are thankful to the entire team for their simply amazing work and commitment in bringing this iconic World War Two Bomber back to life for all to see.
