Lockheed Vega - Winnie Mae - Proyecto Reinicio

Video from the channel Kermit Weeks Channel - Over 480 Videos to See! about Lockheed Vega, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 14:42. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

Kermit Weeks welcomes Kevin Kimball to Fantasy of Flight to resume the restoration of the Lockheed Vega, which had been stalled for a couple of years. Together they review the wing, which retains the original 1929 structure with new skin, the new fuel tanks and the tail assembly. They also select the boxes of parts that will go to Kimball's workshop in Mount Dora.

Kimball explains how the fuselage skin is made: a three-ply birch plywood, 1, 2 and 1 mm thick (the drawings give 0.039 and 0.078 inches), assembled in strips because the shape has double curvature. At the factory, the strips were joined with veneer tape over a male mold. They were then transferred to a female concrete mold and pressed with a large rubber bladder at about 20 psi. The workshop will use a vacuum bag over the male mold, which is safer. The 1940s- or 1950s-era fiberglass tanks have been replaced with new ones built to the original drawings.

According to Weeks, only four original Vegas with wooden fuselages remain, and this will be the only one to fly. The engine it carried, an overly heavy 1340, required about 70 pounds of lead in the tail. It will be replaced with an earlier, lighter version. The fuselage is the hardest part of what remains.