http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/307111--monumental-assembly-makes-wwii-bomber-step-closer-to-flight
Monumental assembly makes WWII bomber step closer to flight
A team from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum attach the front bombing observation section to the main fuselage of the Bolingbroke bomber. Watch a video of the assembly at thespec.com.
Bolingbroke Bomber A team from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum attach the front bombing observation section to the main fuselage of the Bolingbroke bomber. Watch a video of the assembly at thespec.com.
Gary Yokoyama/The Hamilton Spectator
Wayne Ready and his team have been trying to put a Second World War bomber back up in the air for almost three decades.
Wednesday was a big day for the 69-year-old, as he saw the different parts of the twin-engine Bolingbroke finally come together, hinged on a centre section that was fitted after being a fixture for years.
“This is a significant day. This is the big day,” said Ready, who has co-ordinated the Bolingbroke restoration project since its inception in 1986. “That whole aircraft hinges on that one (centre) piece.”
His crew of 20 people — all volunteering their time — spent Wednesday at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum working on making the plane look like a full aircraft again, raising the rear of the 47-foot-long warplane to level its body and then assembling the various restored parts, including the cockpit and landing gear, for the first time.
There are only about 15 remaining Bolingbroke planes in the world. If successful, the Bristol Bolingbroke that the Hamilton team is restoring will be the only one in the air, Ready said.
“The purpose is not for us,” he said. “It’s for the people who served. And some didn’t come back. And of course those who did. And that’s what this whole museum’s about. It’s not for us.”
But the group is also personally attached to the project. One of their crew members, Bill Hayman, had worked on the cockpit of the warplane for eight years before he died three years ago. The former war pilot had checked his log book one day and discovered he had flown the Bolingbroke four times, Ready said.
The project co-ordinator also has his own story with the bomber. After his mother died, he went through an album and found a photo of his father, a pilot who was shot down when Ready was a baby, standing beside a Bolingbroke. In turned out his father had trained in one of the planes, Ready said, adding: “It kind of boosted me up to keep going.”
Ready and his team have built most of the aircraft from parts that were contributed from two donors who purchased eight of the discarded airplanes in Manitoba in 1979.
By 1986, Ready’s group launched the project and decided to restore a Bolingbroke, he said.
The Fairchild Aircraft Factory in Longueil, Québec, made 687 Bristol Bolingbrokes, used mainly for training at airbases across Canada, and for patrolling the east and west coasts for enemy submarines.
The restoration group plans to dedicate the plane July 13, 2015, the same day in 1940 when a Bolingbroke for which the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE) raised $100,000 in about a month was dedicated. Over the years, the IODE has donated more than $30,000 to the museum’s restoration project.
The plane is dedicated to the 119 City of Hamilton Tiger Squadron, which was stationed in Yarmouth, N.S., and flew the planes, conducting coastal patrols to protect the Halifax harbour.
Ready and his crew will paint the Hamilton Tiger Squadron crest on one side of the finished plane’s cockpit, and the IODE crest on the other side.
When the project is complete, Ready estimates the total cost will come in at least at about $1.5 million.
“And it’s not for sale,” he quickly added, laughing.
Monumental assembly makes WWII bomber step closer to flight
A team from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum attach the front bombing observation section to the main fuselage of the Bolingbroke bomber. Watch a video of the assembly at thespec.com.
Bolingbroke Bomber A team from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum attach the front bombing observation section to the main fuselage of the Bolingbroke bomber. Watch a video of the assembly at thespec.com.
Gary Yokoyama/The Hamilton Spectator
Wayne Ready and his team have been trying to put a Second World War bomber back up in the air for almost three decades.
Wednesday was a big day for the 69-year-old, as he saw the different parts of the twin-engine Bolingbroke finally come together, hinged on a centre section that was fitted after being a fixture for years.
“This is a significant day. This is the big day,” said Ready, who has co-ordinated the Bolingbroke restoration project since its inception in 1986. “That whole aircraft hinges on that one (centre) piece.”
His crew of 20 people — all volunteering their time — spent Wednesday at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum working on making the plane look like a full aircraft again, raising the rear of the 47-foot-long warplane to level its body and then assembling the various restored parts, including the cockpit and landing gear, for the first time.
There are only about 15 remaining Bolingbroke planes in the world. If successful, the Bristol Bolingbroke that the Hamilton team is restoring will be the only one in the air, Ready said.
“The purpose is not for us,” he said. “It’s for the people who served. And some didn’t come back. And of course those who did. And that’s what this whole museum’s about. It’s not for us.”
But the group is also personally attached to the project. One of their crew members, Bill Hayman, had worked on the cockpit of the warplane for eight years before he died three years ago. The former war pilot had checked his log book one day and discovered he had flown the Bolingbroke four times, Ready said.
The project co-ordinator also has his own story with the bomber. After his mother died, he went through an album and found a photo of his father, a pilot who was shot down when Ready was a baby, standing beside a Bolingbroke. In turned out his father had trained in one of the planes, Ready said, adding: “It kind of boosted me up to keep going.”
Ready and his team have built most of the aircraft from parts that were contributed from two donors who purchased eight of the discarded airplanes in Manitoba in 1979.
By 1986, Ready’s group launched the project and decided to restore a Bolingbroke, he said.
The Fairchild Aircraft Factory in Longueil, Québec, made 687 Bristol Bolingbrokes, used mainly for training at airbases across Canada, and for patrolling the east and west coasts for enemy submarines.
The restoration group plans to dedicate the plane July 13, 2015, the same day in 1940 when a Bolingbroke for which the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE) raised $100,000 in about a month was dedicated. Over the years, the IODE has donated more than $30,000 to the museum’s restoration project.
The plane is dedicated to the 119 City of Hamilton Tiger Squadron, which was stationed in Yarmouth, N.S., and flew the planes, conducting coastal patrols to protect the Halifax harbour.
Ready and his crew will paint the Hamilton Tiger Squadron crest on one side of the finished plane’s cockpit, and the IODE crest on the other side.
When the project is complete, Ready estimates the total cost will come in at least at about $1.5 million.
“And it’s not for sale,” he quickly added, laughing.
