B-17 Flying Fortress Restoration

Through engaging narrative and first-person accounts, B-17 Flying Fortress Restoration captures the painstaking restoration of a World War II-vintage Boeing B-17 bomber by more than 100 volunteers in Pooler, GA. Airplane restoration and military aviation enthusiasts alike can follow the airplane's journey from the storage hangers of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum to the Combat Gallery of the Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, where it arrived in pieces on the backs of four tractor-trailers. B-17 Flying Fortress Restoration charts the volunteer team's frustrations and successes over a six-year period as they cleaned accumulated crud from the bomber's surfaces and carefully recreated its aluminum skin, operating systems, armament and even its nose art. In addition, the book traces the histories of the two City of Savannah B-17s - the original and the restored - and includes many personal stories of veterans as told by themselves or their families. The City of Savannah volunteers brought a wide range of skills to the task. They were airframe and power plant mechanics, painters, aeronautical engineers, electrical engineers, business people and administrators, even a former physics professor with a PhD and 30 years of flying experience. Many were drawn to the project after their day jobs at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, LMI Aerospace, Inc., and the 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard. Others were retired and eager to make a long-term commitment to restoring a vintage warbird.