A man in Marengo, Illinois, is on a mission to fully recover a B-17 bomber from the First World War-a project that he has been working diligently on in a shed along the road for the past 40 years.
A lifelong aviation enthusiast, Mike Kellner started his journey in high school after he heard that a car graveyard in Maine wanted to discharge the abandonment of the historic bomber. The asking price was “$ 7,000 or best offer” for a collection of dismantled parts. Kellner loaded the 75-foot aluminum colos on a house trailer (he had to extend it by about 10 foot) and dragged it halfway through the country with a pick-up. Since then it has lived in his barn. Kellner shared the decades of story of his restoration project With local outlet WGN Earlier this week.
And unlike a lot of roadside relics from the Second World War, it does not only collect dust. Kellner has worked countless hours on repairing the plane to his former glory, performing his own repairs, adding finishing and tracing a series of rare and difficult parts to be found. The word of his efforts spread and attracted other aviation lovers who have offered their time over the years to help with the restoration. Kellner documents the entire process on one Facebook pageWith thousands of updates that go back to 2010. He doesn’t just want the project to be something nice to watch – he wants it to fly.
“It’s a piece of history, and I would like to fly the chance to fly,” Kellner told WGN. Popular science Provided to Kellner for more details, but has not heard anything yet.
Rebuild a ‘flying fort’
The B-17 was the The most iconic bomber used by the US Army During the Second World War. Its origin actually follows a decade earlier until 1934, when the Army Air Corps Boeing approached with a request to design a huge aircraft and to develop that bombs can wear at 10,000 feet and more than 10 hours. The army wanted a new breed of bomber that could travel over enemy lines at large distances and bombs with precision. It had to be able to reach heights high enough to fly out of the reach of enemy anti -arcretal artillery. The final B-17 contained a state-of-the-art Norden Bombsight To maintain accuracy, even on extreme heights.
Early versions of the B-17 came into production in 1937, but the production threw up considerably after the US officially entered the Second World War in 1941. The bomber who eventually flew missions behind the enemy lines, contained four engines-a large upgrade of the then standard two and was equipped with a touch of weapons, including ones in the nose, upper fusel, and tail. This horn of the abundance of ammunition, combined with the gigantic size of the plane, earned the nickname ‘Flying Fortress’.
The B-17 is currently being generated in Kellner’s Barn, reportedly has two names. One, “Desert Rat”, is painted in bold yellow letters on the outside of the plane. The other, ‘mandarin’, was later discovered, scribbled somewhere in the hull. It is unclear how much Kellner needs his dream longer to let the desert rat fly. The task seems to be a discouraging for someone who works part -time with a small budget, but again, few would probably have predicted that he would have made it to start with. You can keep track of all the progress of Kellner Follow his official Facebook page here.
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