Have snipped Steve's comment from another topic. Seems to me that this is an excellent viewpoint, & that many of us would like to know of major restorations not given much media time. There are often techniques to be learnt & inspiration to be gained from like-minded souls elsewhere.
Perhaps we could leave this heading as a sticky, & flag up interesting adventures. I've listed 3 that I've come across below .....
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I think the common thread must be the enormous effort to get something that had been retired, and expected never to function again, back into commission. It just shows what can be done if you really are determined. I can't think of any country that does more of this than GB (and I realise this newsgroup is open to the world) - it may just inspire me to fix the petrol leak on my Stuart generator, in spite of the perishin' cold.
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Examples :
- The restoration of the Kew Bridge Steam Engines -- enormous, iconic, lengthy
- The project to construct a full-size A4 locomotive. Gigantic task, difficult to comprehend how they will get the money, skill, time, facilities & energy to do it. I don't know current status
- Tom Reilly's at Kissimmee,Fl. Not 10 miles from the nightmare at Disney.. Abandon the family to the queues & the rides & head down to Kissimmee airport. Tom Reilly's is round the back of the airfield & is a mixture of museum & aircraft restoration workshop. I used to go there monthly, & watched the ground-up rebuild of Fw190, Corsair, B17 & many others.
Fantastic building, very non-American. Just an old hangar, walls jammed to the rafters with spares & bits of aeroplanes. Not a trace of order -- but you know that the owner can find anything he wants instantly ... just like my shed!!!
Aircraft hang from the ceiling, up the walls, & are on the ground. In cleared spaces, jigs are made & rebuilds happen. Whilst this goes on, folk take short courses there in aircraft restoration & play out their dreams for a week or two.
Even piles of interesting stuff out the back, including chunks of B17's, Skyrays etc. For those only keen on engines, there are many. You can see piles of P&W barrels & pistons, valves galore. Watch out for snakes & varmints ....
Possibly his most amazing challenge is a cube some 6 ft sq which is the bulk of a P-38 Lightning. It comprises most of the centre section of the aircraft, which was in civilian use with an Anti-icing research team (I've forgotten who, but may be UCLA).
Surprise, surprise -- it iced up & was totally destroyed in a crash. Looks as 'tho it's been 'thru a crusher at the scrapyard
-- but they will rebuild it....
In the US you must retain a specific % of original components to be able to class the airframe as a restoration, rather than replica. It's a high number -- possibly >80% -- so the metal restoration techniques will be a wonder to watch. Luckily the wings are substantially complete, which must help the %.
- Just remembered -- newest similar challenge locally is the P-38 Lightning from Llanbedr that's re-appeared off the beach at Harlech, in very shallow water. Once upon a time, this would have been at best recovered as a static display of tortured metal -- & there is a legitimate argument that this end is entirely appropriate.
Having so said, I rather suspect the recovery of a UK-based Lightning will cause the eyes of the restoration fanatics to open wide, & they will inspire us all...
- .... & the recovery & restoration of "Babs" from it's beach grave was another amazing job well done
All of these projects face enormous engine rebuild challenges!
BTW, if this post screws up the line spacing, it's my last ever post!!
Colin