BY MICHELLE Z. DONAHUE
With Flak-Bait front fuselage, conservation team members from left, Jeremy Kinney, Lauren Horelick, Pat Robinson and Chris Moore. (Photo by Michelle Z. Donahue)
Ah, that new car smell. New plane smell is nice, too. Bright and shiny and fresh is good, right?
Sure, unless it is a very special World War II bomber, covered in hard-earned dirt and grunge, bullet holes and riveted repair patches. To remove these would be erasing classic historical battle scars.
That's the challenge staff at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum now face while resurrecting Flak-Bait, a Martin B-26 Marauder in the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hanger at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. Team leader Pat Robinson, museum specialist Chris Moore, and conservators Lauren Horelick and Malcolm Collum are analyzing paint composition, stabilizing paint layers and excavating layers of grime to sustain the plane's gritty, tough character for decades to come. more to read : http://insider.si.edu/2015/06/
