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With its departure from the USA being complicated somewhat by the global logistics situation, we are pleased to announce that our Dauntless has now boarded the container ship Olivia Maersk for the trip to Ardmore, New Zealand, where Pioneer Aero Ltd. will lead the SBD’s restoration. A secondary workshop, Aero Trader, of Chino, California, has…

A question which arises regularly at the Museum is, “How much of this airplane is actually original?” We always answer, “As much as possible!” While items like the worn-down rub strips described in our last update absolutely must be replaced, this update will focus upon the dedicated effort involved in refurbishing what otherwise might be…

More progress forward of the firewall is taking place! Pioneer Aero is continuing to work on the dish pan, addressing several areas which show signs of wear. The engineers who originally designed the Dauntless anticipated some of these locations where metal vibrates against metal, installing rub strips at those spots to create a barrier of…

Mil-Spec has stripped the fuel truck’s chassis all the way down. Following the removal of brake lines, running board mounting brackets, battery box, the radiator and its frame, the truck is now about as disassembled as it ever will be. The restoration team has sandblasted the frame to remove surface corrosion and has begun the…

Amongst the components shipped to New Zealand was the partial fuselage from Douglas RA-24B Banshee 42-54593, an Army Air Forces variant of the Dauntless. The MGM movie studio once used this airframe, along with a number of other examples, to simulate wind on their film sets when needed. While the film company had cut away…

The Dauntless team is presently focusing on the control surfaces. The rudder, in particular, is receiving a lot of attention. Although comprised of mostly original components (from a parts donor airframe) the rudder had undergone disassembly and reassembly at some previous point in its life, and some of its components did not align properly. The…

It has been a while since our last Dauntless Update, and the eagle eyed amongst you will likely have noticed that the fuselage is still here at the Museum awaiting transport to New Zealand (much to the frustration of the whole team!). The shipping challenges we have encountered have slowed the project down, preventing the…

2020 seems like so long ago! We located a WWII Fuel Truck in Ohio, and we added it to the collection with a plan to make it serviceable for refueling our airplanes. We contacted the fine folks at Mil Spec Vehicle Restorations in Belvidere, New Jersey (a beautiful town if you ever get the chance…

The newest addition to the collection is an SNB-1! The Navy version of an AT-11 Kansan, this sometimes overlooked warbird had an outsized impact on the war! The AT-11 was the standard bombardier trainer for the US Army Air Forces during World War II and would be used to train around 90% of the more…

Following right along behind the Fuel Truck restoration is another new piece of equipment for the airfield! This 1941 International-built Fire Engine has come to us from North Carolina, and we are excited to get started. The current condition of the vehicle is being surveyed (it does run!) and a couple of ground rules have…