In early 2011, American Aero Services was selected to perform major maintenance and restoration work on the B-17G “Chuckie”.

“Chuckie” Arrives In New Smyrna Beach Chuckie arriving in New Smyrna Beach with Ray Fowler and Don Brooks at the controls. AAS was tasked to strip and paint the waist section, radio room and bombay of the VMM’s B-17. After which a ball turret, chin turret and other GFE items would be added along with the removal of the cargo door on the right hand side and returning it back to original.

Replacement of nose skins Skins on the right and left sides of the nose had been damaged from years of ice and ladders, these skins were replaced while at American Aero Services

Oil filters Oil filter mounts

Chin turret mount An original chin turret mount was obtained from Jay Wisler at Warbird Parts and Memorabilia and restored to accept the original M2 50 cal guns

Engine work All four engines received ADC filters with bypass lights and chip lights along with Oil-a-Matic pre oilers

Restored chin turret mount Chin turret mount fit and installed

Fitting chin turret bucket Fitting the chin turret bucket

Chin turret fairings installed Chin turret bucket and fairing installed

Chin turret

Waist section before paint removal The waist section with the cargo door on the right side before paint removal

Waist section stripped Waist section looking aft after water blasting.

Restoring righthand waist window After the cargo door was removed the right hand waist window structure was installed

Righthand waist window New skins installed were installed after the structure was in place

Lower radio room paint

Left hand radio room before stripping This is the condition of the left side of the radio room when it arrived at American Aero

Right hand radio room

Radio room after water blasting

Radio room racks Using original factory drawings, new radio shelves were built for the missing radios

Radio room looking aft

Radio room looking forward

Radio room operators desk

Restoring the ball turret Since the ball turret was removed during the 17’s years as a bug sprayer, much of the original equipment disappeared, AAS had to fabricate new ball turret ring mounts to hold the rotating ring in place

Restoring ball turret Newly fabricated ball turret mounts were test fit to the ball turret ring

Test fit of ball turret After the ring was installed the turret was test fit

Fabrication of ball turret post The vertical post was missing for the ball turret that attaches it to the “spine” of the 17, a new one was fabricated and installed after the ring and mounts were installed