Latest news with #MikeKellner
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Illinois man has spent 40 years rebuilding a WWII-era B-17 bomber in his barn
A man in Marengo, Illinois, is on a mission to fully restore a World War II-era B-17 bomber—a project he's been diligently working on in a roadside barn for the past 40 years. A lifelong aviation enthusiast, Mike Kellner began his journey in high school after hearing that a junkyard in Maine was looking to offload the abandoned remains of the historic bomber. The asking price was '$7,000 or best offer' for a collection of disassembled parts. Kellner loaded the 75-foot aluminum behemoth onto a house trailer (he had to extend it by about 10 feet) and hauled it halfway across the country with a pickup truck. It's lived in his barn ever since. Kellner shared the decades-long story of his restoration project with local outlet WGN earlier this week. And unlike many World War II-era roadside relics, this one isn't just collecting dust. Kellner has spent countless hours working to restore the plane to its former glory, performing his own repairs, adding finishing touches, and tracking down an array of rare and hard-to-find parts. Word of his efforts spread, attracting other aviation enthusiasts who have volunteered their time over the years to assist with the restoration. Kellner documents the entire process on a Facebook page, which features thousands of update posts dating back to 2010. He doesn't just want the project to be something pretty to look at—he wants it to fly. 'It is a piece of history, and I would like the opportunity to fly it,' Kellner told WGN. Popular Science reached out to Kellner for more details but has not heard back. The B-17 was the most iconic bomber used by the US military during the second World War. Its origin actually traces back a decade earlier to 1934, when the Army Air Corps approached Boeing with an ask to design and develop a massive plane capable of carrying bombs at 10,000 feet and for more than 10 hours. The military wanted a new breed of bomber that would be able to travel beyond enemy lines at great distances and drop bombs with precision. It needed to be able to reach altitudes high enough to fly outside of the range of enemy antiaircraft artillery. The eventual B-17 featured a state-of-the-art Norden bombsight to maintain accuracy even at extreme altitudes. Early versions of the B-17 entered production in 1937, but manufacturing ramped up significantly after the U.S. officially entered World War II in 1941. The bomber that eventually flew missions behind enemy lines featured four engines—a major upgrade from the then-standard two—and was equipped with a smattering of gun turrets, including ones in the nose, upper fuselage, and tail. This cornucopia of munitions, combined with the aircraft's mammoth size, earned it the nickname 'Flying Fortress.' The B-17 currently being resurrected in Kellner's barn reportedly carries two names. One, 'Desert Rat,' is painted in bold yellow lettering on the aircraft's exterior. The other, 'Tangerine,' was discovered later, scrawled somewhere inside the unclear how much longer Kellner will need to make his dream of flying the Desert Rat a reality. The task seems like a daunting one for someone working part-time on a shoestring budget but then again, few would have likely predicted he would have made it this far to begin with. You can keep up with all of Kellner's progress by following his official Facebook page here.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Suburban man brings history back to life with 75-foot WWII aircraft
MARENGO, Ill. (WGN) — Every small town has its dreamer, and along the quiet farm-lined roads of Marengo, Illinois, that dreamer is Mike Kellner. For 40 years, he has been working away in a barn to bring a ghost back to life. The ghost is a 75-foot-long, gleaming aluminum WWII warbird known as the B-17. 'It's a piece of history and I would like to have the opportunity to fly it,' Kellner said. The fact that it's here in his barn is just about as unbelievable as the story of how it came to be. The plane was found in a junkyard in Maine in 1984. It was listed as 'Old Bomber. $7,000 or best offer.' More on Kellner's project on his Facebook page 'We took an old house trailer, took the house off of it, added 10 feet on it and pulled it with a pickup truck,' Kellner said. It took five trips and 39 more years to piece her back, panel by panel, rivet by rivet. The B-17—a nostalgic vessel of the past. 'We found a bunch of dental record in one of the spar tubes cause this was being used as a litter carrier,' Kellner said. 'In the horizontals there were two women wrote their names, address and phone number.' Word spread about Kellner's barn project and folks started to show up, including a retired airplane mechanic whose uncle manned a turret and a relative who was a P.O.W. in Germany. They came with stories, tools, time and reverence. An estimated 50,000 U.S. airman were lost or missing in action on B-17 missions—with many more wounded. But even when the donation jar is long dried up and the hunt for parts elusive, Kellner continues on—piecing the plane back together so one day, she can tip her wings to the sky, and to the stories that ended up in the clouds. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
