While serving as the showpiece of the Bomber Gas Station, the Lacey Lady’s wing tanks were converted to motor oil holding tanks. Motor oil was dispensed to the vehicles below via spigots affixed to the side of the building in the late 40s.
Showing posts with label Art Lacey B17 gas station. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art Lacey B17 gas station. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 06, 2022
The Lacey Lady, the B17 of the Bomber Gas Station in Milwaukie Oregon, is still being slowly restored, but it will still be years and millions of dollars until completion and test flight. That gas station went out of business during the covid quarantine though. The plane won't ever be coming back to be a roadside attraction, it's going to be a museum piece
While serving as the showpiece of the Bomber Gas Station, the Lacey Lady’s wing tanks were converted to motor oil holding tanks. Motor oil was dispensed to the vehicles below via spigots affixed to the side of the building in the late 40s.
Monday, March 07, 2022
For some reason there has been a lot of interest in the B 17 over Art Lacey's gas station in Milwaukie Oregon lately... and I hadn't looked for an update in the past couple years, so I'm not surprised to learn it's been shut down by the covid quarantine business killings
though the past couple of years had been promising to see the plane restored, you can forget about it.
A restoration would cost about 8.5 million, and they had only raised 500k.
Now that the gas station and restaurant have closed for good, I expect to learn that the few useful parts of the plane will be sold off to help in restorations of other B 17s. The engines were the lowest run time hours of any known B 17 engines
1976
Saturday, August 04, 2018
though they began the complete restoration years ago, and won't finish for years, the Smithsonian Magazine just ran an article on the B17 over the gas station in Milwaukie Oregon
The Library of Congress credits Margolies with shaping the postmodernist movement, and digitized his work in 2016, making it available as public domain.
https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/Came-Roost-Oregon-180969502/
I've been posting about it since 2013. In 2015 they really got to work, and took it all apart https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/03/update-on-oregon-gas-station-b-17.html
In the summer of 2013 they sent the cockpit roof and tail turret to a master craftsman repairman in Atlanta. In the fall of 2013 the pulled the rudder and elevators.
Individuals, groups, or organizations interested in providing sponsorship for the B-17 Alliance Group project please contact: AllianceMuseum@B17AllianceGroup.org
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Update on the Oregon gas station B 17 restoration
Back in December 2014 it was loaded and moved to Salem
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/b-17-alliance-moves-historic-milwaukie-b-17-bomber-salem-restoration.html
This is just one step in the years long coverage of Art Lacey's B 17 story started in 2013
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/01/i-love-b-17-bomber-story-here-is-good.html
updated a year ago http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-gas-station-b-17-of-art-lacey-near.html
Friday, March 14, 2014
The gas station B 17 of Art Lacey, near Portland Oregon is getting restored to fly again... it's going to take about 7 years
full post of how a B 17 came from WW2 surplus to be a gas station tourist draw at http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/01/i-love-b-17-bomber-story-here-is-good.html
For info about its restoration: http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/bullet-news/b-17-lacey-lady-update.html
in the 1990's the fuselage was removed and restored, and that was all the funding they had put together.
So, in 2012 someone got fed up with the lack of interest and lack of give a damn, and fired up the troops, and pulled the engines down for a rebuild
The engines are so flippin rare... and these are the rarest of them all... unless you know of a quartet still in the crates. These ones are only 37 hours of run time used. The lowest run time 1820-97s that exist.
In the summer of 2013 they sent the cockpit roof and tail turret to a master craftsman repairman in Atlanta
In the fall of 2013 the pulled the rudder and elevators.
Individuals, groups, or organizations interested in providing sponsorship for the B-17 Alliance Group project please contact:
AllianceMuseum@B17AllianceGroup.org
Once inside she will not just be tucked away and forgotten about. The bomb bay and radio room will join the cockpit in the jig. The rear fuselage will be also placed in a jig. Once placed in the jigs, the work will continue. Even though we are picking up momentum, it is still going to take 5-7 yrs to complete this restoration. One thing we have going for us is that our airplane has not been crushed or burned, but with the corrosion and missing components from theft and vandals, we have our work cut out for us. But we believe this is a very doable restoration. All the work that has been done so far has been done to airworthy condition. When we are finished with the restoration we plan to fly her as a tribute to the men and women who served in WW2.”
info from http://www.warbirdsnews.com/category/warbird-restorations/b-17g-lacey-lady
Sunday, January 13, 2013
I love a B 17 bomber story, here is a good one , a surplus B 17, a guy who couldn't fly one, who wrote bad checks, and couldn't get a permit to move it and build a gas station
In Milwaukie Oregon, on the 99e highway, also known as McLoughlin Blvd, 6 miles south of Portland Oregon. Between I5 and the 205
Above is the "Before" photo referring to the current or recent restoration. Notice the great fluorescent lights under the wings
Below you can see that the nose and cockpit are removed for renovations
Shortly after WWII , Art Lacey went to Kansas to buy a surplus B-17. His idea was to fly it back to Oregon, jack it up in the air and make a gas station out of it.
He paid $15,000 for it. He asked which one was his and they said take whichever you want because there were miles of them. He didn't know how to fly a 4 engine airplane so he read the manual while he taxied around by himself. They said he couldn't take off alone so he put a mannequin in the co-pilot's seat and off he went.
He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he went to land he realized he needed a co-pilot to lower the landing gear. He crashed and totaled his plane and another on the ground. They wrote them both off as "wind damaged" and told him to pick out another for only $1500. He talked a couple friends into co-piloting, Bob Sturges and George Fuller. Sturges was an aeronautical engineer and was the Boeing tech rep assigned to the 8th Air Force in England. After the war, he purchased Boeing’s stock of surplus B17 parts and founded Columbia Airmotive. Sturges suggested the purchase of the B17 to Art Lacey. Sturges and Fuller were both experienced B17 pilots. Lacey had a student license having some hours in a Piper Cub, but for flying the B17 to Portland, he wisely got help.
They flew to Palm Springs where Lacey wrote a hot check for gas then they headed for Oregon. They hit a snow storm and couldn't find their way so they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. His partner sat in the nose section and would yell, "TUNNEL" when he saw one and Lacey would climb over the mountain.
They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and they started getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail for a long time so late one Saturday night he just moved it himself. He got a $10 ticket from the police for having too wide a load.
The plane weighs 32 tons, is 75' long and has a wingspan of 104'. Mr. Lacey worked on planes during WWII but he was not a great pilot. The gas station opened in 1947, followed by the Bomber Drive-In in 1948. The station started out with five pumps but eventually had 40. Although it closed in 1991, the original family still runs the restaurant and the plane is still on display
just 6 miles South of Downtown Portland on Hwy 99E. Just get on 99E (aka Mcloughlin Blvd.) and head South. About 1/2 mile out of Milwaukie you will see the Big B-17G Bomber. http://www.thebomber.com/
They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and they started getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail for a long time so late one Saturday night he just moved it himself. He got a $10 ticket from the police for having too wide a load.
The plane weighs 32 tons, is 75' long and has a wingspan of 104'. Mr. Lacey worked on planes during WWII but he was not a great pilot. The gas station opened in 1947, followed by the Bomber Drive-In in 1948. The station started out with five pumps but eventually had 40. Although it closed in 1991, the original family still runs the restaurant and the plane is still on display
just 6 miles South of Downtown Portland on Hwy 99E. Just get on 99E (aka Mcloughlin Blvd.) and head South. About 1/2 mile out of Milwaukie you will see the Big B-17G Bomber. http://www.thebomber.com/
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