Original Memphis Belle Enters Final Stages Of Restoration-Here Are The Latest Pictures

She’s Just About Ready.

Decades in the making, our beloved Memphis Belle is almost ready to be displayed in a special hangar in tip-top shape. This is, by the way, the real Memphis Belle. The Belle and the crew that books were written about, documentaries were made and was the subject of movies. Just the clarify for some of you who might not know this, there is another Memphis Belle which is airworthy, but that one was renamed for the purposes of the movie. The pictures below are of the one that actually fought during World War II.

Sadly, she will not be airworthy. Thre’s just too much money involved in making an aircraft like this fly again. She will be ready, however, in May 2018 to be enjoyed by many even if just on the ground.

Now, if you want to know the history of this aircraft and how she ended up in such bad shape in the first place, click here for the full story. Otherwise, here are some great pictures of her fresh new paint job.

You can watch a short clip we put together below from historical archives. In it, you’ll see the same plane but over 75 years ago. These were the men and boys who crewed her and flew 25 deadly missions over the flak-filled skies over Germany during World War II. Kind of mind-blowing if you think about it.