Aircraft Restoration and Maintenance for the USS Midway Museum.
This page updated on 02 May 2008.
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Bob Gingery, Air Wing Volunteer Volunteer of the Month, May 2008
Specific accomplishments include: Assumed the co-lead on the L-19/O-1 Bird Dog restoration project, using his technical expertise as advisor and restoration technician the aircraft is presently being prepped for paint prior to its arrival onboard Midway in April 2009. As Crew Lead on restoration on the F4U-4 Corsair, his leadership has been inspiring. He was instrumental in the manufacture of the Air Wing's Wing Jig. The design of this jig required carefull planning and thought to ensure that it would be adaptable for the Corsair's and any future wing restoration that we will be doing. Utilizing in-house volunteers, available scrap material in the compound and a donated bearing, he planned and organized the manufacture of this jig. The use of this jig greatly improved the accessability to all parts of the wing which allowed the team more quickly restore this complicated, time and man-hour consuming project. Bob Gingery, always willing to help and advise another aircraft restoration volunteer, has been a positive influence at the making it a pleasure to work with in the restoration projects at the USS Midway's Aircraft Restoration Hangar 805 onboard NAS North Island. Typical of the Air Wing's "can do" spirit, Bob Gingery is very deserving of this nomination and selection as USS Midway Museum's May 2008 VOM. Photo and text provided by USS Midway Museum.
A new restoration project and future USS Midway Museum exhibit arrived at the hangar on 2 April 2008. It's a F4F-3 Wildcat, an aircraft that played a significant role in Naval battles shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. More photos of the offload at the restoration hangar were added to Restoration Hangar Gallery No. 15. As more information becomes available about this project, it will be published in this site. Photos by Bobby Reyes.
Photos of new markings going on the port side of the A-6E Intruder are in Restoration Hangar Gallery No. 15. Volunteer Bob Roland, a former Marine Corps aviator and F-4 Phantom II pilot, was instrumental in the design and application of the markings. A photo of the completed project is on the Intruder's Aircraft Data Sheet.
Two new photo galleries have been added to the site. They are Restoration Hangar Gallery No. 15 and Exhibit Aircraft Gallery No. 6. Twenty-three new photos have been added to the Midway Photo Gallery.
New photos of volunteers restoring the Seasprite aboard the Midway are in Restoration Hangar Gallery No. 14. Included in this latest group of photos by Midway Museum Photographer, Clint Griffin, are photos of the instrument panel installation. Also just added are photos of the refinishing operations provided by Clint Griffin and volunteer Gary Willis.
Another USS Midway Museum future exhibit, a F4U-4 Corsair, arrived at the restoration hangar on 28 November 2006. It is loaned to USS Midway Museum by Ms. Lori Crown.
The restoration process is well underway. Some of the airframe components that were sent to other locations for repair, restoration, and, in some cases, remanufacture, were returned to the restoration hangar on 4 November 2007 where the next steps in the Corsair's restoration has begun. Restoration volunteers are about to start installing new skin on one of the wings. New photos of volunteers restoring one of the Corsair's wings are in Restoration Hangar Gallery No. 15.
The restoration of the the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog continues. It is being restored as a USS Midway Museum exhibit to commemorate one of the more memorable events in USS Midway's history; the landing of another O-1 on
Good progress has been made in the Bird Dog's restoration. The wings have been attached and it is nearly ready to be sent to the NADEP paint hangar to begin preparation for final paint.
Photos of this aircraft in the restoration hangar are in Restoration Hangar Gallery No. 13 and Restoration Hangar Gallery No. 15.
The Bird Dog that landed aboard the Midway in 1975 is on display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, FL.
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Two 
the ship in 1975. That aircraft was flown by a South Vietnamese pilot who flew his wife and five children to the ship to escape the fall of South Vietnam.