What is aircraft restoration?
There are two types of airplanes or aircrafts that would
need restoration. Flying and Static. Flying can be for recreation, commercial
or for a show and Static would be for aircraft that usually sits in a hangar,
building, basement, garage or museum. So what is restoration? Dictionary.com
states is as, “the act of restoring; renewal, revival, or reestablishment; a
return of something to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition;
something that is restored, as by renovating; a reconstruction or reproduction
of an ancient building, extinct animal, or the like, showing it in its original
state; a putting back into a former position, dignity, etc.” In this case, restoration
means to restore an aircraft to its original condition when it was brought
right out of the factory.
When one commonly thinks of airplane restoration, they think
of restoring it to factory specifications like it was brand new. In most cases,
after a renovation is complete, the airplane or aircraft is used in airshows
and museums or in rare condition is put away and covered as it has value to a
collector or organization. This is really important to understand because when
someone comes to Vert Inc and asks for restoration, they could be thinking of
just restoring the original paint job, which we can do easily, but restoring
the entire aircraft to original condition from the inside out is not something we
do, unfortunately.
We can restore a paint job to its original condition because
we own our own spectrophotometer which measures waves of light in which each
wave has its own value or code and we can literally replace the original paint
job with a brand new one that would fool any expert. If one was looking for
full restoration, meaning to restore the aircraft’s inside and out, that is not
what we do but we have partners that can and have done it for a long time.
Depending on what aircraft you have and where it was manufactured (meaning if
it was design in Russia and we don’t have the blueprints since it was the cold
war era – we could only restore based on pictures and not facts) we can usually
find the right partners do get what you need done.
So we definitely established that we can only restore the
paint job and our partners can restore the interior, components and
instruments, but let’s take a closer look at what a full restoration job could
really look like. Without getting too involved and detailed which it is
definitely not needed, one must consider everything but the paint and the
detail that involves in such a huge undertaking. Restoration means “working”
and “like new”. And that is what needs to happen with the components and
instruments. The interior of an aircraft is complicated and full of intricate
pieces that cannot be overlooked. Each part that is designed for the aircraft
has a part to play in its functionality, agility and performance.
Safety should be number one in everyone’s mind when it comes
to restoration aircraft. The slightest change, weight or shape could affect the
aircraft’s original conception and drop its value or worse its performance. In
example, if you replace a part of the gurney flap with a heavier piece of metal
or less sturdy, you could kill someone because the design doesn’t call for such
a replacement. If you do not plan on flying the aircraft, then such measures
can be performed but the value of the machine could diminish if audited by
experts. Regardless, there are thousands of examples of restoring instruments,
components and the like and if you’re interested in restoring your aircraft,
please consider the dangers that are involved.
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