# The original Smithsonian Garber facility in MD before the new museum was built at the Dulles DC airport.



## Kyushuj7w (Jul 29, 2021)

I was fortunate enough to visit the original Garber storage facility long long ago before they closed it to the public. They had veteran docents there who maintained , flew or fought these aircraft and only a few of the storage buildings were open to walk through. This was the pre cell phone days. I dug up the photos of some of these old road trips I could still put my hands on. Clearing things out now so the kids don't have to later. A few museums are no longer around. How time has flown by. I know I have more than these. I did not have sophisticated camera equipment at the time , most of the warehouses were not heated, it was cold and raining that day. I was coming back from RIchmond after a plant site visit. These warehouses had those old sodium light fixtures, in somes cases the tin roofs were leaking and some aircraft in crates still were outdoors after 40 years!!!. I don't think people have any real idea how these things were stored as they moved around the country after WW2 and testing was finished. Its like going into your uncles old tobacco barn and finding an old car. You know how these places are, the feel , the dust, the smell, all in a good way.

*The Hurricane was being restored and the Serian was also being worked on so I checked the museums records. *





Specialists at the Garber Facility began restoring the airplane in 1989 and finished the project eleven years later. The fighter is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.​Packed in pretty tight Lets see who can identify the AC top to bottom.









Restoration work began on the floatplane in June 1989 and ended in February 2000, thanks to the outstanding work of a team of staff experts, many volunteers, and several Japanese nationals working at Garber and in Japan. No production drawings survive and the team conducted exhaustive research into how various aircraft systems operated in order accurately reconstruct a number of missing components. They found interesting design features built into the Seiran that ranged in engineering quality from the ingenious to the seemingly absurd. This artifact also bore witness to the difficult working conditions that plagued the Japanese aviation industry at the end of the war. Quality and workmanship were seriously lacking because of extensive damage to equipment and factories and the lack of skilled, professional workers (many were high school students). A metal flap bore damage-probably the result of a bombing raid-hastily covered with fabric patches. They found the interior of fuel tanks contaminated with paper documents. Basic fit and alignment of parts was also poor in many places. Someone, possibly a Japanese student, scratched a complete English alphabet inside one wing panel. Technicians found more graffiti in various areas on the airframe. Some of it mocking the managment ( some things never change )

Craftsmen were surprised to find no evidence that the pilot could jettison the floats in flight, contrary to claims by the designer. Aichi may have deleted this feature near the end of the M6A1 production run.



















You can see the modern workshop at the new center now. The Kikka is there but I wonder if they have the engines. My avatar KyushuJ7w displays only the nose section . I'm not sure of they have the rest . A good roadtrip overnight trip to see both museums . Can't really see the one on the mall and at Dulles in the same day.

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## Gnomey (Jul 31, 2021)

Nice shots!


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## Wurger (Jul 31, 2021)




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## cvairwerks (Aug 1, 2021)

One of the neat things that the restoration staff used to do, is run either 1 or 2 week long classes on restoration. They were limited to something like 10 or 20 people and all phases of the processes were covered with both classroom and hands on work. It wasn’t cheap, something like 750-1000$ for the week plus your living and travel expenses. I could never get things lined up far enough in advance to even try for a slot.

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## Crimea_River (Aug 1, 2021)

Good pics. Thanks for posting.


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## Kyushuj7w (Aug 1, 2021)

cvairwerks said:


> One of the neat things that the restoration staff used to do, is run either 1 or 2 week long classes on restoration. They were limited to something like 10 or 20 people and all phases of the processes were covered with both classroom and hands on work. It wasn’t cheap, something like 750-1000$ for the week plus your living and travel expenses. I could never get things lined up far enough in advance to even try for a slot.


Wow .... but an opportinity of a life time to say I help rebuild that plane and it does raise funds to get done. A bit rich for many of us though.


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