rockdoon

so i dont know if you guys would consider this a vehicle... but it is a form of transportation and can get you from point a to b... so anyways i show you guys the restoration of North American serial # 44-30733 affectionately know as sandbar mitchell, she's a B-25 mitchell from ww2 that crashed on a sandbar in 69,

heres a few pictures of the current state of the aircraft

nose section


me (left) and a friend working on drilling rivets


the ungoddly amount of rivets


after the aft wing panel was removed (note: every silver dot is a drilled rivet)


both wing panels removed


and here is how she will look in 10 years

perpetual

That is awesome. If I ever get your direction I will stop and drill rivets with you guys for a day and get my old airplane nerd on.

bullettooth2008

Interesting restoration, do you hope to have it flying eventually? (May be a dumb question) but costly project one would assume.

rockdoon

I forgot to point out I'm not the owner or head of restoration but I'm one of the volunteers and one of the most active volunteers, anyways yes we plan on bringing her back to flying condition... If you guys want I can post up the whole story on her haha

RedStar

Uh definitely. I'd love to hear it.

rockdoon

ok here we go,

our story begins in February 16th 1945 when 44-30733 was delivered to the army air corps



she was operated as a trainer until she was sold in 1960 as surplus, she began a new life as a fire bomber in alaska with with the tail number N9088Z



on june 27 1969 while fighting a forest fire she suffered a dual engine failure shortly after takeoff forcing the pilot herm gallaher to ditch 8Z on a sandbar



two days later it was decided that it was to expensive to recover the aircraft so they decided to take the engines and the control surfaces





in 1979 she was still a complete airframe and was dubbed sandbar mitchell by pilots who used her as a marker to turn into fairbanks international



over time her condition deteriorated, but it wasnt mother natures fault it was humans that caused all the damage


in july of 2013 a team led by Patrick Mihalek went out to recover what was left of sandbar mitchell to restore her back to her former glory as a b25j

chuck1225

... Must.. contain.. inner history geek/WWII nut/airplane nerd... OHMYGOSHTHATTHINGISSOCOOL!!!!

muffinman

What he said. Great work and so worthwhile. Keep it up!

SHELBYGT NSM

Thats awesome!

rockdoon

Sadly we haven't had much time recently to work more on it... We're hopping another week or 2 to get that yellow center section out to start the actual restoration... But in the mean Time y'all can see more at www.sandbarmitchell.org...

Gillette1987

That's awesome! My grandfather was a co-pilot of several B17's during WW2, his last plane was the Mon Tete Rouge II that was shot down over Bittburg (I think...) and half the crew survived, my grandfather was pushed out of the window by the pilot moments before impact. The pilot maneuvered the plane into the local railroad tracks, disrupting railroad usage at the time. His body was recovered in the mid 50s by metal scavengers in the area. My family and I had the opportunity to visit the town AND the exact place the plane crashed, where my grandfather and crew was held as POW and interrogations in a villager's garage. Such a cool experience listening to the locals as kids talking about watching the plane dip out of cloud cover, was shot at, watching the plane crash and hearing unused munitions going off all night. We visited a house that had the garage roofing used from parts of the wreckage, the green patina was clearly visible from the inside. Oh the questions I wish I could've asked and heard stories of his time in WW2... He passed away 2 weeks after my parents got married

rockdoon

thats an amazing story, its a sad truth that most of the veterans are now gone, and its up to the people that keep these old warbirds flying to keep the memory alive