Who restored and re-assembled the Flying Boat and how long did it take?
Dedicated crews of volunteers restored the Flying Boats’ exterior in a temporary storage area. They replaced the deteriorated fabric on the rudder and elevators and removed the old paint from the fuselage, wings, vertical stabilizer, and floats. The paint removal exposed inspection stamps, signatures of men and women who worked on the original construction, and evidence that the wood laminate had passed wind shear tests. The crew sanded the large pieces of the Flying Boat, primed them with a white latex finish, and repainted them in the original flight color of silver. Preparations began for the final 800-foot move from temporary storage to the new museum. Moving crews, news crews, and spectators began arriving during the early morning hours of September 16, 2000. At 10 a.m., the B-17 Flying Fortress signaled the beginning of the procession across Highway 18. The vertical tail came first, followed by the right and left wings, each spanning a distance wider than the five-lane highway. A
