Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - The jet seen at Kenney Field in the Town of Tonawanda for decades has been under wraps for the past few months as restoration efforts are near completion.
There was one surprise for Jeff Mucciarelli's team at Gabe's Collision when the crew began work: bullet holes. "That sort of sent chills down all of our spines," says Mucciarelli.
"Once we got it down to the shell, there was these small patches all over the plane, and we're like, oh, that's odd. Maybe it was dented or rusted or even it's aluminum, it really couldn't rust. So we started taking off these patches, and they were bullet holes. And even though it was a recon plane, total reconnaissance plane, we noticed where the cameras were and the swivel for the cameras on the nose of the plane, I mean, they still got shot at, and it was unbelievable to us when we started taking this apart and seeing this stuff."
He says at that point, crews decided to take it all apart and restore it right. "We fabricated metal, fabricated aluminum, riveted back on there, and we used some minor filler to smooth everything out. But it's the original shell now, rather than just a bunch of filler covering this plane. It really looks like an airplane now again, and we're so happy to see that," adds Mucciarelli.
Supervisor John Flynn says the goal is to have it ready by Wednesday, Veterans Day. "The plane may be painted by then and ready to go by then. But we had to disturb the whole area around the plane," explains Flynn. "We had to fix the fence there and fix the landscaping around it and make it what it looked like, so I don't want to have like a coming out party until the whole area is redone there and looking nice." If not Wednesday, he'd like to reveal the finished project by the end of next week.
The plane is part of the veterans park. "Our Veterans Park honors all service members for all the branches of the military, and so it just complements not only the people of Tonawanda and Kenmore and Western New York who have served in the military, but it complements the community as a whole by having that plane there and having him be such a landmark figure to the entire community," says Flynn.
The plane arrived in 1959, and was climbed on by children until fenced off in 2010.
Goal is to have restoration finished by Veterans Day
Goal is to have restoration finished by Veterans Day
