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Only three Il-2s are known to reside on U.S. With 30,000 or more built-in its day, the Sturmovik, as it was called, only a handful remain on display today. Other notable contraptions in the hangar at the moment include an Ilyushin Il-2 Russian ground attack plane from World War II. When you're the Smithsonian Institution, you can afford these luxuries, it seems. Only the best of the best are given permission to work on such planes. By which components like the cockpit, fuselage, and wings were constructed separately before being joined with bolds and welds into a complete airframe.ĭeconstructing this airplane that was never designed to be taken apart without damaging even a single nut or bolt is a task no ordinary DIY guru could do with some degree of skill.
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Many large aircraft of this age utilized a semi-modular construction. Given the state it sits in now, that's all the more believable. Legend says over 1000 flak and enemy aircraft shells battered Flak Bait over its historic career. Perhaps the longest stay in the hangar belongs to Flak Bait, a Martin B-26 Marauder twin-engined bomber believed to hold the record for the most bombing missions survived over Europe without being shot down. It's like peeking into a time nexus that flows backward, with the end result being airplanes that look as new as they did decades ago. Since 2003, dozens of planes and other aviation-related goodies have found their way under the bright LED lights and massive window panes that guests can't get enough of peering into. Today, that Helldiver is on public display in the museum. The very same aircraft former museum director Don Engen, husband of Mary Baker Engen. The first aircraft to complete its restoration in the MBERH was a Curtis SB2C-5 Helldiver dive-bomber. So, safe to say that the staff employed in this hangar take their sweet time with every project. A substantial enough mess-up can even result in the loss of the whole airframe. There is absolutely zero room for error with hardware so old, rare, and brittle as is often sported when it gets this old. If you thought auto restorations looked grueling, vintage warplane restoration makes that look like washing off your old HotWheels toys in the kitchen sink after they get mystery stains on them. Named after the wife of one of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's oldest contributors and former directors, the MBERH, as we'll refer to it from now on, was one of the cornerstones of this official annex of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. Why? Because you can peer right into the hangar and watch all the work. Welcome to the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar, perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the entire museum. Some require a little more work than others to get ready for display. But among the iconic and famous names among these hallowed halls, this includes the Enola Gay and Space Shuttle Discovery, mind you.