As many readers will be well aware, there are a number of Boeing B-17s under restoration to fly right now. Perhaps the boldest of these projects is Mike Kellner’s effort in Marengo, Illinois. He and his team are working to resurrect Boeing B-17E 41-2595, a combat veteran Flying Fortress which once bore the nicknames Desert Rat and Tangerine. As we have reported previously, Kellner found the aircraft in a farmer’s field near Bangor, Maine as a collection of chopped-apart components back in the mid-1980s. Somehow, he had the vision to see this jumble of battered parts one day going back together again as an airworthy B-17. The project got underway in earnest during the mid-1990s. While Kellner and his intrepid volunteers work on a shoestring budget, they have engineered miracles with their efforts; the Fort’ is well on her way to becoming whole again. Interestingly, the aircraft did not serve as a bomber during her combat life (in the China Burma India theatre), but rather as a converted cargo plane prototype for the breed known as the XC-108A. Despite this unique aspect to the airframe, Kellner is restoring the aircraft back to its original B-17E configuration, to the way the airframe would have looked when it rolled off Boeing’s production line in Seattle, Washington during April 1942. Desert Rat, as Kellner and his team have re-dubbed her, will be the oldest Flying Fortress in the skies when she finally flies, although this record may eventually be surpassed by a B-17C which the team also has on the books. Desert Rat could use our help though, but before we provide a link for contributions, we thought our readers would enjoy a recent visit by Scott Thompson of Aero Vintage, we have permission to relay his latest article on the project, reproduced (with gentle editing) below.