It's "home"...

At last the Blue X has arrived in Bodø. This mostly thanks to the guys at Bergen, and to FLO/Trans and Toten Transport. The weather was excellent, the logistics came together, and offloading took no more than a couple of hours.

The guys came along to watch and help, and this load was taken off and put in storage easily and without problems. Some parts are already in processing, and other parts will be taken care of shortly. A part that has not been shown before, is the propeller. It was not salvaged initially, but has been picked up from 110m/350ft of water at a later stage.

The tail section on the lawn outside our restoration facility. And in a few days, some guys will be raising a Messerschmitt 109 from the sea.... and taking the wreck to Bodø.  So in addition to the Ju 88, and the Black 3 FW190, we will also have the BlueX and a Me 109 on our premises. If you are interested in Luftwaffe history: the place to visit this summer is Norsk Luftfartsmuseum! 

Now the work starts.... and an important change!

There are two different topics today. The first is the language. Having received comments from far and abroad, the blog will from now on be in english, readable for more people than norwegian. Soon also the links, side text and a summary of the Black 3 History will be in english also.

Secondly, we will bring attention to some of the work involved. The aircraft salvaged outside Bergen, we for now call it the "blue X" since it probably is from Herdla airfield, but we still have no discernable lettering or serial numbers, is meant to be a source for spare parts for our primary project, the Black 3. Hence the URL of this blog.

For now, we will bring to attention the amount of work that will be needed to make parts from the sea wreck usable for restorational purposes. Here you see 2 pictures, both of them of the breech end of a MG 131. One picture is from the wreck, the other from the Armed Forces Museum collection. Guess which is which??

For anyone trying to restore an old aircraft recovered from the seabed, the amount of work is staggering. But, when finished: very rewarding!