KBJCpilot From United States of America, joined May 2012, 95 posts, RR: 8 Posted (11 months 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 5308 times:
The B-17, Aluminum Overcast is in Denver this week for a WWII commemoration and is on display at APA, Arapahoe County Airport, in Centennial, CO. Lat night, a severe thunderstorm swept into the area with 2" hail and damaging winds tearing up roofs, denting automobiles, and sadly, severely damaging the B-17. From the pictures on KUSA's website it doesn't look good. The upper control surfaces are riddled with tears and dents from the hail.
YXwatcherMKE From United States of America, joined May 2007, 799 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (11 months 2 weeks 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 4835 times:
My Father flew those B-17's in WWII and had shown us kids picture of B-17's with far more damage that came from the German 109's and flack and still managed to fly hundreds of mile back to their base. The B-17 is one very tough bird and could be repair within a short amount of time. Sometimes as little as 24 hours if need be. As Kanban stated most of the skin is a fabric like material on the wing and is an easy to fix, but will take some time to do because it most likely not going to be on sight unless the people that flew the B-17 in have it with them and have the know how to make the repairs.
I miss the 60's & 70's when you felt like a guest on the plane not cattle like today
L-188 From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 29350 posts, RR: 62 Reply 3, posted (11 months 2 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago) and read 4732 times:
Fabric shouldn't be hard to find. It will take a day or two to get everything stiched and the silvercoat of dope on it. Sheetmetal will take longer, and there may be some rib repairs needed if one of them them took a direct hit from a hailstone
As far as hail, this airplane stood up to 88mm flak guns, a bit of hail is nothing.
OBAMA-WORST PRESIDENT EVER....Even SKOORB would be better.
boeingfixer From Canada, joined Jul 2005, 490 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (11 months 2 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 4441 times:
Quoting L-188 (Reply 3): Fabric shouldn't be hard to find. It will take a day or two to get everything stiched and the silvercoat of dope on it.
Getting the fabric is the easy part of the job. It will actually take a lot longer to recover the control surfaces. I estimate 10-14 working days to remove, strip, prep, recover, final finish and install the ailerons and elevators and that's with a good fabric working crew in a good facility.
DiamondFlyer From United States of America, joined Oct 2008, 1294 posts, RR: 3 Reply 6, posted (11 months 2 weeks 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 4304 times:
Quoting boeingfixer (Reply 5): Getting the fabric is the easy part of the job. It will actually take a lot longer to recover the control surfaces. I estimate 10-14 working days to remove, strip, prep, recover, final finish and install the ailerons and elevators and that's with a good fabric working crew in a good facility.
EAA says the aircraft will be flying passenger rides next weekend in Denver for those who had purchased them already. There are a lot of people who would gladly donate time to work on such an aircraft.
L-188 From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 29350 posts, RR: 62 Reply 7, posted (11 months 2 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 4069 times:
Quoting boeingfixer (Reply 5): . It will actually take a lot longer to recover the control surfaces. I estimate 10-14 working days to remove, strip, prep, recover, final finish and install the ailerons and elevators and that's with a good fabric working crew in a good facility.
That probably isn't too far off.
Again you could probably skimp a bit on the number of silver coats, plus I think they should be able to get multiple teams to work on one or two surfaces at a time which will speed things up.
OBAMA-WORST PRESIDENT EVER....Even SKOORB would be better.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined May 2012, 95 posts, 
From Canada, joined Jul 2005, 490 posts, 
Sponsor Message: 
Printer friendly format
