Richard

Pioneer Aero recently achieved two major milestones in the SBD's restoration. They completed the assembly of all five primary spars for the Wing Center Section, after which they began trial-fitting Spars #1 and #2 into the jig, along with the ribs linking these two major subassemblies together!

Amidst all of the larger structural components which Pioneer Aero's engineers are working on, they have also refurbished or remade a significant number of smaller items for the SBD's fuselage, which this article will help describe.

The Military Aviation Museum held a post-restoration roll-out event for our Messerschmitt Me 262 replica at Chesapeake Regional Airport on May 10th, allowing event visitors to get a close-up view of the aircraft. More of these events will take place over the course of the year, so keep your eyes on the Museum's Calendar!

As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, this story about the sacrifice of Royal Navy sailor, Able Seaman Walter Neville Lavington should serve as a window into the lives of so many Allied service personnel who gave their last full measure during WWII.

The Museum's Mitsubishi A6M3 Model 32 made its first post-restoration flight today after a decades-long restoration effort!

Pioneer Aero has refurbished or, where necessary, remanufactured each of the stringers in the SBD's upper fuselage, being able to reuse roughly 80% of the original material. The following article describes their progress so far.

The CAF's R4D Gooney Bird, Ready 4 Duty, collected the British grave stone rubbings from the Museum over Easter weekend as part of the Bring the Boys Back Home campaign. Several Museum artifacts also went aboard the aircraft as well, helping to tell the story of the US Navy's involvement in WWII. This article describes those related to the Battleship USS North Carolina and its famed OS2U Kingfisher observation planes.

The Military Aviation Museum has acquired a magnificent Vultee BT-13A Valiant which will form an important part of our program to train new pilots to fly the other, more powerful aircraft in our collection.

As a followup to last week's article describing the effort by Museum volunteers to support the Commemorative Air Force's Bring the Boys Back Home project, our Museum's Director and CEO, Keegan Chetwynd ventured down to North Carolina to capture headstone rubbings for British wartime personnel who are buried in coastal cemeteries. His report below describes the circumstances involved in the wartime loss of these brave young men.

Military Aviation Museum volunteers are helping capture rubbings of tombstones belonging to WWII British service personnel buried in the Virginia Beach area in partnership with the Commemorative Air Force's Bring the Boys Back Home campaign, which hopes to return these impressions to the UK this summer as part of the commemorations celebrating the end of WWII in Europe.