The Sandbar Mitchell restoration team continues to make steady progress. In the past couple of weeks they have removed the upper left hand stringers from the center section as well as the stringers mated with the center spars. They have also de-riveted the ribs in the outboard, front and rear auxiliary tank bays. Cleaning of the spar caps continues along with the webbing on the front left side. The team has also drilled out the spar web stiffeners, cleaned them, and clecoed them back into place. The other large task at hand is creating an inventory of everything that they have, whether it has been donated, collected or removed off the Mitchell. They have already annotated 1350 parts into their spread sheet which features the part number, the quantity on hand, the part manual figure number and page (so they have a quick reference for details on the part). Once inventoried, each item receives a label and goes into a storage bin marked with the part number. It’s an arduous process, but so necessary for keeping track of all the myriad details in such a big project.
Warbirds News will continue to bring news on this fascinating project as soon as it becomes available. Please visit the Sandbar Mitchell Team’s website to find out more about the aircraft’s history and how you too can help the project… Or join their Facebook page.
Richard Mallory Allnutt's aviation passion ignited at the 1974 Farnborough Airshow. Raised in 1970s Britain, he was immersed in WWII aviation lore. Moving to Washington DC, he frequented the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum, meeting aviation legends.
After grad school, Richard worked for Lockheed-Martin but stayed devoted to aviation, volunteering at museums and honing his photography skills. In 2013, he became the founding editor of Warbirds News, now Vintage Aviation News. With around 800 articles written, he focuses on supporting grassroots aviation groups.
Richard values the connections made in the aviation community and is proud to help grow Vintage Aviation News.
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