Veterans and Volunteers Rebuild Classic War Planes

(Nov. 11) -- In a dilapidated hangar in a faraway corner of Brooklyn, N.Y., veterans -- some of whom served before the age of jet propulsion -- assemble model airplanes.

Very big model airplanes.

The Historic Aircraft Restoration Project, dubbed HARP by its members, is a program that allows former servicemen and aircraft lovers of all ages to spend their days rebuilding and refurbishing antique airplanes, from propeller-powered trainers to Vietnam War-era jets.

"We don't restore them to fly them, we restore them to museum standards," said Dante Dimille, 77, a graphic designer by trade and an airplane mechanic and cartographer in the Air Force between 1951 and 1955.

"Airplanes were never designed to be around forever -- aluminum corrodes," he said. "But restoration is a forever thing."

Historic preservation is the motivation for the team of about 50 regular volunteers, who range in age from their teens to their early 90s. Most crew members are residents of the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, many are retired, and all but two are men.

There are Vietnam War vets, Korean War vets, a couple of World War II vets, as well as folks who just enjoy tinkering with old aircraft, painstakingly restoring period-specific paint jobs, fabricating hard-to-find parts, and sharing stories about the history of aviation with anyone who happens upon Hangar B.

And there's no better place to do it.

Since 1995, aviation aficionados have restored old planes at Floyd Bennett Field, a historic airfield that was New York City's first commercial airport before becoming a Naval Air station during World War II.

After the war, Floyd Bennett Field was overshadowed by other New York City airports like LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy. Today, it only handles a few flights per year and is maintained by the National Park Service as a part of Gateway National Recreation Area.

But Floyd Bennett Field's history as a hub for early aviators makes it a perfect match for a project like HARP, considering that its runways were once used by legendary pilots like Charles Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, Amelia Earhart and Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan, who made a famous 1938 trans-Atlantic crossing after claiming his navigation systems malfunctioned when he took off from Brooklyn on a flight supposedly bound for California.

Perhaps most important to the HARP volunteers is Wiley Post, a one-eyed pilot who set a world record by circumnavigating the globe in just seven days and 18 hours after departing from Floyd Bennett Field in 1933.

For the past 4 1/2 years, 82-year-old Hank Iken has worked hard to construct a model of the Winnie Mae -- a full-scale replica of the Lockheed Vega 5B that Post flew around the world.

Iken, a graphic artist, pilot, historian, builder and "occasional floor sweeper," was able to draft plans for the plane thanks to his design background.

"We were able to get ahold of very detailed drawings of the Winnie Mae and I scaled up from that into the actual size," he said.

Iken and other volunteers have built the model by hand, and they admit it hasn't been easy.

"We have a great crew, but it's never enough guys with experience -- we're all volunteers," said Iken, who hopes to finish the Winnie Mae -- which measures 41 feet from wing to wing -- by spring.

Though the work is hard, Iken says he loves spending his days in the hangar.

"It gets me out of the house and I don't have to argue with my wife," he joked. "I'm just in awe of these guys who designed these amazing airplanes."

Amazing they are, like the replica of the Wright Flyer, a craft that gave birth to aviation; a rare PBY-5 Catalina, used for patrol bombing in World War II; and a Boeing Stratocruiser C-97, which provided food and supplies to residents of West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift and is still flight-worthy today.

Volunteer Bob Weiss has a favorite: a P2V Neptune.

Between 1958 and 1961, Weiss served in the Naval Reserves based out of Floyd Bennett Field and often flew aboard a P2V Neptune in search of Russian submarines.

"We would fly out of here and take pictures and look for submarines -- but I never saw one," said Weiss, 72. "We saw plenty of sunken ships, but not any submarines."

"These planes were not built for comfort. They weren't pressurized, so you froze your ass off in the winter and you baked in the summer."

Though Weiss didn't find the P2V Neptune cozy when he was flying in it, he was ecstatic when volunteers hauled one into Hangar B.

"I was thrilled when this thing came in because it was a piece of my own private history, and now I get to preserve it," he said.

"You get all of those feelings coming back, the rush. You were 20, 25 years old," Weiss said. "We had a good time."

For many HARP volunteers, these pieces of aviation history aren't just time capsules for future generations -- they are time machines that bring them back to their years of service.

As such, when the volunteers aren't hard at work, they can often be found fighting old battles in the lunchroom, arguing, for example, about which branch of the armed forces is best.

Many participants are quick to say how much they enjoy taking part in HARP. But they'll also admit it's not easy.

Operating with an annual budget of about $30,000 per year, it can be difficult to acquire missing parts or needed materials.

And the airplanes aren't the only things that need restoration: Hangar B could use some serious repairs. The building has a leaky roof and is often freezing in the winter, making it impossible to work on sheet metal for extended periods.

But according to Dimille, the biggest challenge is age.

"We are at a stage where most of the guys don't buy green bananas any more," said Dimille, who noted that the average age of the crew working on the Winnie Mae is 75.

"The clock is ticking and there's still so much to be done."

"What happens when I lose a key man like Hank?" he asked. "We don't have a line out the door."

Hangar B is open to the public Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but it doesn't draw too many visitors, earning it the nickname "Brooklyn's best-kept secret" among volunteers.

"We get some schoolkids and some senior citizens, but it's not as popular as it should be, for whatever reason," Dimille said.

Dimille has been volunteering his time to aircraft restoration at the airport at the foot of Flatbush Avenue for the past 11 1/2 years, but he's had an attachment to aviation since he was a child.

As a boy growing up in Brooklyn, Dimille said his love for flying machines was sparked when he saw a military pilot buzz Flatbush Avenue at a low altitude.

"I waved and the pilot waved back, and I was hooked," he said.

In a way, Dimille hopes he can play the role of that pilot -- even if he's not flying any planes.

"Every once in a while you see a light in a kid's eyes when you're showing them a plane and you know you got to them," he said. "That's why we come down here."