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B-29 "DOC" Restoration Project |
Hugh Long |
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I've been interested in airplanes ever since WWII when I watched the planes fly over our farm in north Butler County shooting at a target dragged behind another plane. I thought how much fun it would be to be a fighter pilot. That was not to be. After highschool, I went to work at Beech Aircraft working as a sheetmetal mechanic. During that time I tried to join the military, but was turned down because of a back problem I did not know I had. I worked a couple of more years there and was laid off. At that time, it seemed that when one of the Wichita aircraft companies was laying off, one of the others was hiring, so it was off to Boeing I went where I worked on the B-47 Mod program, then the flight line on the B-52G and B-52H fuel system. I stayed with Boeing until the B-52H program was about finished. They had already began laying off people inside the plant and I knew it was a matter of time the RIF would begin on the flight line. When I got the opportunity to go to work at Tinker AFB doing the same kind of work I moved to OKC where I worked on KC 135's, C-124's and C-141's Stayed there til 1966 and got the chance to go to Peterson AFB at Colorado Springs, still working aircraft fuel systems. There I worked on T-33's, T-37's, T-29's, C-118's, C-131's, T-39's, and many transient aircraft like the F-101, F-4, T-38's, F-102, F-106's and a few others I can't recall. After more than 20 years crawling inside of stinky fuel cells I had had enough. When I got the chance to take a job selling real estate I took it and never looked back. After more than 20 years in the real estate business, my wife and I decded to retire and move back to Newton, Kansas to be close to family. After all these years, airplanes were still of interest to me. I heard about the DOC restoration program and decided to volunteer. For the past 3 years I have worked at Newton on restoration of the wings. Whether I live to see DOC fly or not, I I have had fun and I will say that I look forward to every day I go to work. It is relaxing and I can forget any problems that I may have. If I have any regrets, it would be that after 60 years around airplanes, I never learned to fly. |