Restoration Specialist, Andy Salter, just completed a milestone on one of our onsite airplane projects . . . the installation of a Liberty engine he overhauled himself for our WWI DeHavilland 4!
Andy makes last minute checks!
Andy is an expert machinist and comes from a background of tool and die making as well as car and airplane restoration. He was involved in the rebuild of the Spitfire we have at Fantasy of Flight as well as several other projects I had done in England before he came to work for me.
Hoisting the Liberty to its new Home!
One of the more tedious parts of the overhaul was hand-scraping the silver babbitted crankshaft bearings, which alone took him three weeks! Next steps on the project will be to begin installing anything that connects to the engine like fuel lines, instruments, radiator, etc.
Installed!
Andy is also working on another Liberty for our other DH-4 Mailplane so what he’s learned from this project will have a direct carry over to the Mailplane.
I can’t wait to hear one run!
Kermit