WWII Aircraft Restoration Soars in Steel

For people who are not familiar with warbird restoration, a conversation with Tom Reilly will leave their head spinning with his cyclonic references to numbers and letters that together form a powerful torrent of history.

A warbird is a term used to describe vintage military aircraft, typically from the World War II era, and Reilly has been restoring them for 40 years.

steel-hangar-for-restorationMore specifically, he has performed 34 major restorations which included ten B-25s, three B-17s, one B-24, one F4U Corsair, a P-40, and nine T-6 (SNJ) aircraft.

To the average layperson, what all those numbers and letters boil down to is that Reilly knows his stuff, which was evident to the legions of people who visited the Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum in Kissimmee, FL.

In 1985, Reilly bared the belly of his passion for bomber-type aircrafts when he opened the doors to this popular attraction where visitors could get a bird’s-eye view of a restoration in progress as well as his vast collection of aircrafts and related memorabilia.

Some 20 years later, Hurricane Charley ravaged the museum to the point that Reilly had had enough of the weather’s seemingly endless assault on Kissimmee, which is a suburb of Orlando.

“I shut the business down after Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne tore through the place, one right after the other,” says Reilly. “It felt like Kissimmee had a big bull’s eye on it that every hurricane was gunning for.”

But for Reilly, when one door (or in his case, a hangar) closed, another one opened, which is why now he can be found in Douglas, GA heading up a intensive restoration project for a company he founded called the B-25 Group on the North American Aviation XP-82 Twin Mustang prototype. This aircraft is only one of two that still exist in civilian hands, and he and his team have been working on restoring it to fly once again since 2008.

According to the project website (www.xp-82twinmustangproject.com), they have made significant progress in bringing the XP-82 back to flying status, having completed the left-hand and right-hand fuselages, both engine mounts, top cowlings, horizontal, elevator, both aft fuselage extensions and verticals, center flap, and landing gear. They are heavy into the rebuild of the ailerons (four), rudders, and center section. Nixon’s Vintage V-12s has both right-hand and left-hand engines complete, and MT Propeller delivered the two propellers, a right-hand and counter-rotating left-hand.

It was earlier this year when Reilly realized there was one big piece of the puzzle he desperately needed before he and his crew could continue to properly restore the XP-82—space.

metal-hangarrestoration-hangar

They initially had set up shop in a Quonset hut-styled WWII hangar located north of the Fixed Based Operator at the Douglas Municipal Airport that was built in 1940 and used as a flight-training base for 10,000 men during World War II.

“That hangar became so full that we had to have our own facility when we started assembling,” says Reilly. “I knew I wanted the new building to have the same Quonset hut look and to be made of steel, so I started contacting companies that sold what I was looking for—and SteelMaster Buildings was one of them.”

For more than 29 years, SteelMaster Buildings, which is located in Virginia Beach, VA, has manufactured, designed, and supplied pre-fabricated arched steel structures to 40,000 customers located in every state of the United States, in 40 countries, and on seven continents around the world.

“I was talking to four or five different steel building manufacturers, and quality and price were definitely things that I was comparing,” says Reilly. “But ultimately I went with SteelMaster because of the comfort level I had dealing with a salesman there named Rob Cass. I was impressed by how straight-forward he is and how knowledgeable he is about the buildings. He didn’t give me any high-pressured sales pitch, but with a product that is manufactured as well as a SteelMaster building is, that type of nonsense isn’t necessary.”

According to SteelMaster’s Director of Marketing Michelle Wickum, most customers assemble and raise their buildings without a contractor, which adds to their cost effectiveness.

“Our buildings are sensibly designed so that assembly is straightforward and uncomplicated—you definitely don’t have to be someone of Mr. Reilly’s skill level and expertise to put it up,” says Wickum. “There is only a one-size nut and bolt system to work with, and an easy-to-read and detailed construction manual, YouTube videos, and of course people like Rob Cass are always available to assist during any phase of the assembly process.”

Four of Reilly’s employees had his SteelMaster building up in no time, and he is there almost every day with his crew working on the restoration of the XP-82.

“I am constantly thinking about this aircraft and planning for the next step and then the step after that,” says Reilly. “We are getting the restoration perfect, right down to the smallest detail.”

Reilly and the crew found some interesting notes on the prototype parts prior to restoration, apparently between co-workers to communicate with each other between shifts during the war, such as “426 AD 4-6 rivet goes here” (complete with an arrow) and “John, I will have the tickets for you tomorrow for the theatre.”

Reilly’s crew documented and saved the graffiti to reapply it to the newly painted interior surfaces, and they have even gone as far as spectrographing the different colors of paints throughout the interior of the aircraft, duplicating the colors exactly. They also found and purchased the original WW II 442 head-style rivets to use in the restoration.

“I’ve been doing this work for 40 years, and I can’t imagine ever not doing it. But, I’d never be where I am without the many, many people who have helped me and lent their support throughout this journey, especially when it comes to this project—it’s been the greatest ride ever.”