As he helped reassemble a vintage aircraft, Bob Cromwell was able to check off a couple of goals.
The manager of Pearson Air Museum has a new centerpiece for the collection. It’s an aircraft that reflects the roots of Army aviation at the historic airfield.
But there was something else going on Wednesday as Cromwell helped an aircraft restoration team get the new exhibit ready for display.
“I can’t believe it,” Cromwell said. “I’m actually able to help physically put her together. As a boy, I was interested in historic aircraft. It was always my dream to work on a warbird. I can’t believe I’m working on a warbird.”
The warbird is a DeHavilland DH-4B, a representative of the World War I biplane that British pilots introduced to combat 100 years ago.
On Saturday, this DH-4B Liberty will be introduced to visitors to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. As a National Park Service unit, Fort Vancouver will celebrate the agency’s centennial with a slate of activities. The 10 a.m. opening ceremony at Pearson Air Museum will include the unveiling of the DH-4B Liberty.
(The American-made version was named for its 400-horsepower Liberty engine.)
“This represents the very beginnings of Army aviation at Pearson Field,” said Cromwell, who also is acting chief ranger at Fort Vancouver. “It’s a very rare survivor of that 1920s era.”
The Liberty was restored by Century Aviation in East Wenatchee, although the company didn’t exactly start with one original airplane. There were some complete sections, including the original rudder and two elevators that comprised an intact tail section.
They had a lot of DH-4 parts on hand, and filled in the gaps with replacement parts they fabricated to DeHavilland’s original specifications, thanks to copies of 2,000 factory drawings.
To illustrate the company Pearson Air Museum is in, Century Aviation has restored similar DH-4 aircraft for the National Museum of the U.S. Marine Corps in Quantico, Va., and the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Pearson’s plane is about the end of the DH-4 line, Mark Smith said, who owns Century Aviation with business partner Karen Barrow.
In assessing their inventory of parts required to restore a DH-4, “We have one more left,” Smith said.
Pearson’s Liberty isn’t flyable, by the way; the plane is strictly for display purposes.
Fort Vancouver’s DH-4B has been painted to represent the Liberty flown from Pearson Field by Lt. Oakley Kelly, who commanded the Army’s 321st Observation Squadron from 1924 to 1928.
Museum visitors might notice that there are no U.S. Army stars on the tops and bottoms of the wings. That’s because the restorers stayed true to a 1925 photograph, provided by Cromwell, of a DH-4 that had been based at Pearson Field.
It was obvious in the photograph that the wings had just been re-covered with new fabric, Barrow said. “This one looks just like it.”
The National Park Service purchased the aircraft for $125,000.
That’s about 10 times what a new Liberty cost in 1918. A museum interpretive panel pegged the original price tag at $11,250 per plane.
Tom Vogt: 360-735-4558; www.twitter.com/col_history; tom.vogt@columbian.com
