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Note from the Director
While compiling the end of year report for AMC Headquarters I noticed that this August, September and October we set attendance records in each of those three months. That says a lot about our volunteers because handling 8,000 visitors in a month is far more than John Taylor and I could possibly do. In fact we seldom have the joy of showing our visitors around the museum.
Mike Leister
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 B-17 Upgrade
Up to now our B-17 has been missing one final external feature that would complete its "mission ready" look. That is the left cheek window that houses one of the two single .50 cal machine guns that the navigator used to help protect the nose of the aircraft. Kevin Wysopal and two new active duty volunteer sheet metal mechanics, Albert and Nick, have been fine tuning a replica cheek window we purchased from a museum friend in the B-17 business. None of our aircraft is ever "finished" there are always details to add, but in the case of our B-17 this is the last major addition. We'll have a photo of the completed project in the next edition. |
 KC-135 Damage
Speaking of never finished - a recent wind storm damaged the upper rudder on our KC-135. All of our aircraft have mechanical external rudder locks installed. Next spring, we had already planned to increase the size and security of those lock plates on all our aircraft. Unfortunately the wind load on the KC-135 was so great it bent the rudder right out of the locking plates. Our restoration team will repair the damage and at the same time put full span lock plates in place for this plane in advance of the major effort on the other planes. |
 Merry Christmas
The train layout that was sponsored by the Shoreline Garden Railroad Club was a hit again this year. Kids of all ages loved to watch the trains go round, and the fact that many of them come complete with realistic sound is even better. This year our museum volunteers added an airport to the train village. When it was time to take down our 15 foot real tree it was pretty dry. Paul George decided to take a few branches off of it with cutters so it would be easier to get out the door without shedding needles all over the place. As you can see in the picture he got a little carried away. We ended up with a fifteen foot toothpick. |
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The Berlin Airlift has a story to tell
We have added another video story for our visitors. This time in the Berlin Airlift exhibit. We installed a big screen with sound and closed captioning that tells the history of the Airlift in just seven minutes. It's really good.
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Awesome mural
If you have not been by to see our History of Airlift exhibit you really should. This picture is of the C-17 blocking into place. All that is missing is the noise and the smell of jet fuel.
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