My hubby is flying a friend
My hubby is flying a friend into Oshkosh this year on a Cessna. He actually has his check-ride tomorrow for his IFR. Anywho, My hubby was on the restoration crew for the Delta DC-3, an original 1940 aircraft owned by Delta back in the day. He did all the wiring, electrical, instruments, etc. He has had his picture in AMT walking the wing of this plane twice (four times if you count a repeat). Here's one of many articles written on it:
http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/queen.html and
http://www.amtonline.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=1225.
You should see this plane in person, nearly all chrome on the outside, when polished it acts like a mirror. The interior is out of this world. All materials, fabric, stitching, carpeting, etc., were researched and restored to the same specifications right down to the color of dye. Nearly every component is as close a proximation as is possible, except where the FAA dictated otherwise. She is considered THE most pristine DC-3 restoration out there. They hailed it the Delta Queen, and it got a lot of press. The staff and crew lovingly refer to her as simply "Ship 41."
A friend of ours, Bill Khourie, did a lot of research and found it down in Puerto Rico. A farmer was using it to hall life stock, of all things. Anyway, they "barely" limped it back to the states and restored it here in Atlanta at Delta's headquarters. (That's a whole 'nother story.)
This year, Oshkosh is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the DC-3, and Delta WON'T be there. Boneheads! They've flown it in there before, and they used to fly it all around the country, sort of like a pony ride for the executives and their supporters, but not the year it should be there. Boneheads again!
I was employed at Delta as an IT geek, and I met my hubby in the hangar in the background. I got to really know him when he blue-screened his computer. He says, "On purpose!" Anywho, I (and others) have a little graffiti on the internal interior walls of the aircraft. I don't remember what I wrote, probably my name and Fly High or something, I don't know. All of the writings are covered up now by the interior fabrics. I have ugly handwriting anyway. Hee.
I have to show you the AFTER pictures first; the BEFORE picture is below.
Photo taken October 8th, 1999. The actual day restoration was completed.
Here's my hubby's handiwork. This is all him. (Now I know you will appreciate these, Board.)
My hubby is the one with hair snoozing...well, he's losing it though. ;-)
Here's the BEFORE.
There's more photos out there. Just type in Delta and DC-3. Here's a link with lots of interior and exterior pictures:
http://l1011.homestead.com/DC3.html. I grabbed these off a different site. My personal ones have been archived.
