i did post this in off topic also but just in case some dont get to see it and who ever wants to visit it

Historic WWII plane already a must-see for visitors

By Timothy R. Gaffney

Dayton Daily News

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE | — One of the hottest attractions at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is a broken-down wreck of an airplane.


Behind the scenes tours

* Where: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
* What: Tours of the museum's restoration shop
* When: Second and third Fridays through May, then every Friday until September.
* Cost: Free
* Restrictions: Minimum age 12. Persons between ages 12-18 must be accompanied by an adult. Advance registration required.
* To book a tour: 255-3286, extension 302.

MEMPHIS BELLE SPECS

* Wingspan: 103 feet, 9.3 inches
* Length: 74 feet, 9 inches
* Height: 9 feet, 1 inch
* Empty weight: 36,135 pounds
* Maximum weight: 72,000 pounds
* Powerplants: Four 1,200 horsepower Wright R-1820-97 engines.
* Armament: 13 M2 .50 caliber Browning machine guns
* Crew: 10
* Maximum speed: 250 mph
* Service ceiling: 35,000 feet
* Range: 2,400 miles

Source: Memphis Belle Memorial Assoc. Inc.

But this cut-up, stripped-out old warbird has a name almost everyone knows: Memphis Belle.

It will be years before this Boeing B-17F, one of the most famous bombers of World War II, is restored to museum quality.

But people are already filling the limited spaces on tours of the museum's cluttered restoration hangar where the Memphis Belle resides.

"This is what they all want to see. This is a national icon," Roger Deere, chief of the museum's restoration division, said this week as he stood near the airplane's sawed-off tail section.

The Air Force moved the Memphis Belle here from its namesake city in Tennessee after a private association was unable to finance a museum to house the famous plane. The airplane is in pieces, but Deere's staff has arranged the major sections is if they're all about to be joined together.

"The reason why we placed it that way is exactly so people can get a feel for the airplane," said Museum Director Charles Metcalf, a retired Air Force major general.

"It also gives you a feel for the kind of condition it's in," he said. "You see inside the wings and inside the fuselage, and it's ugly."

The restoration hangar, one in a line of old Wright Field hangars that includes the presidential aircraft gallery, is the museum's attic. It's stuffed with unrestored flying machines seldom seen by the public — a Russian-built MiG-29 Fulcrum and a Thor missile, for examples.

But the Memphis Belle is by far the best known, subject of a World War II documentary and later a Hollywood feature film.

"Normally during the winter, we do (the tour) once a month, but (this month) we started doing it twice a month and they're already filled through February," Metcalf said.

The museum offers the tours on the second and third Fridays of each month between September and May, then weekly through the summer. The tours are free, but space is limited and advance registration is required.

Metcalf said the tours have always been popular.

"The great desire on the part of the public is to see airplanes torn down and being worked on. We have some people who come monthly," he said.

Metcalf said he can't tell if the Memphis Belle has had an effect on overall museum visitation, which he estimates is between 1.2 million and 1.3 million visitations yearly.

"It's all anecdotal, but there have been a lot of (phone) calls" about the Memphis Belle, he said.



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