12-29-2025
Pioneer Aviation’s Doug Brown continues to make excellent progress restoring and, where necessary, refabricating the numerous electrical junction boxes which proliferate the SBD’s airframe.
12-24-2025
As 2025 comes to a close, the cycle of WWII-era 80th anniversaries marked over the past 5 years is also approaching its conclusion. Many of you have participated in Museum programs which have arisen through our observances of this series of historical milestones, from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day – and now, as Christmas nears, we mark another; The Christmas Miracle of 1945.
11-29-2025
Pioneer Aero has nearly completed the SBD’s inboard leading edges, with the main structure for the left and righthand examples now permanently riveted together and having received a layer of topcoat paint, a first for the project!
11-24-2025
After rebuilding and trial-fitting Fuselage Frame #1 into the Wing Center Section jig it became practical to perform a similar task for the structure linking this bulkhead to the rest of the airframe.
11-17-2025
This article covers the trial-fitting for the top section of Fuselage Frame #1 into the SBD’s Upper Fuselage jig along with the structure linking it to Fuselage Frame #2.
11-11-2025
The American Military Heritage Foundation’s Glen Matejcek discusses what was was involved with flying our Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon to its new home in Virginia Beach, and describes his affinity for the aircraft which his organization recently donated to the Military Aviation Museum!
11-06-2025
Thanks to our Director’s chance encounter at Oshkosh and the incredible generosity of the American Military Heritage Foundation—(not to mention a fabulous, timely gift of support from an anonymous benefactor)—the Museum is now the proud custodian of a magnificent Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon, which flew in to our Suffolk facility on Saturday, November 1st.
10-28-2025
Pioneer Aero has begun refabricating numerous electrical junction boxes for the Military Aviation Museum’s Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless. While it may seem like a mundane item to discuss, the manufacturing process is fascinating!
10-23-2025
This is a bumper article describing major progress to the SBD’s forward fuselage. Fuselage Frame #1 is now fully restored and undergoing trial-fitting in the Wing Center Section jig along with the Bomb Displacement System support structure which connects it to Spar #1.
10-03-2025
Pioneer Aero has made significant progress with restoring the components which comprise the SBD’s Lower Rear Fuselage, being able to reuse much of B-22’s original structure. They have now begun trial-fitting the Fuselage Frames back on the jig.
09-29-2025
This article covers the trial-fitting of the SBD’s wing leading edges to the Wing Center Section jig, a major milestone in the Dauntless restoration, as this marks the first time since the aircraft’s wartime crash that the forward wing profile has returned to its true shape!
09-20-2025
Over the past few months the team at Pioneer Aero has spent some of their time working on engine bay components, using the forward fuselage of the former Hollywood wind machine as scaffolding for trial-fitting various firewall-forward components—as discussed in previous articles. Some of the more recent work has involved refabricating engine linkages, plumbing and cowling-related items.