Back in '91-'92 I was invited to NASM “Paul Garber” Restoration Facility here are pic. Photos are done in dark and old 35mm camera so some are not best quality. Hope you like it.
Gumiflex
Thnaks for posting those. Some great shots in there. That must have been a great experience.
That’s a heck of a museum! Wow! So many unusual planes in there… Must have been a blast!
Thanks, I’m glad you like it. If they let me I could sleep there with no problem hehehehe. Small of “old” airplanes and oil was great. It was a great to be next to “Enola Gay” and inside bomb bay, inside Ju 388, P-61, B-17, A-1 to see Go-229, Ar-196, BV-155 and all the rest. Not sure if they let me to get inside if I ask but urge was too big to resist and with lot of cautions and respect I did so I will plea QUILTY as charged. As of today 15 year later some of the planes are done and in museums like “Enola Gay”, Ar-234, Corsair etc. I have a lot of respect for all people that work there for bringing this beautiful airplanes back to life.
Gumiflex
Gumi-
Those are some incredible shots! I always enjoy seeing photos of the aircraft before the restorations are done, look more authentic that way. Those photos of the worn-out looking P-38 are a gold mine for weathering detail! Thanks for sharing, I saved them on my computer for future reference. [tup]
Nice photos of the Garber facility. I visited there in 98, 99 and 2000. As you said, a serious modeler or airplane lover could spend many days or weeks or months in there, (and still not see everything). I heard that they have closed that facility to public tours since the museum and restoration facility at Dulles opened up recently. Do you know if that is true?
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
Not sure yardbird. Use do be 1 day or maybe one weekend per year open house for public. I was able to get into some storage place that is not open to public…lucky me… thanks you my friend who did that for me.
Gumiflex
The Garber facility is closed to the public. The entire operation will be moved to the Udvar-Hazey facility near Dulles. Garber is located in a not so good part of Maryland and they were having trouble with break-ins. The facility was not much more than a collection of non climate controlled metal buildings. It wasn’t the best place for restoration and preservation.
The P-38 and the P-61 are on display at Udvar-Hazey in an “un-restored” condition. They were both post war test beds and remain in those configurations. Richard Bong logged time in the museum’s P-38.
Nice pictures. The ta 152 is up for restoration. I hope they do a yellow 10 quality restro rather than the type work they did to the D-9 at the airforce museum. That thing a mess.
Always good to see photos of the only remaining Bv 155. I would really, really, REALLY like to see it restored- it’s just too cool of an airplane NOT to restore, and if I have a grasp of the size right, that thing should be HUGE!
Hopefully once everything is moved over the the Udvar-Hazy Center, maybe general tours will start up again. This is one of my “Must See” places in the US.