OPERATION CROSSROADS 2018: ACE Again Sponsors Volunteer Aircraft Restoration Team
ACE Clearwater is proud to be an ongoing sponsor of this great crew of detailers who travel to airfields across the nation to restore the exterior skins of important historic aircraft.
Just like automobiles, the outer surfaces of aircraft oxidize and become tarnished. ACE, sponsor of Superior Shine, a Los Angeles-based Auto Detailer, supports this great team, who volunteered their time and effort into the restoration of a B-17 nicknamed “Preston’s Pride”, as well as an Intermediate Air Force One Douglas VC-9 (pictured last). In their words, “ACE makes it possible for us not just to work on these historic planes, but to become a part of their history.” It took nine crew members 354 man-hours in four days to bring these planes back to life.
The B-17G Flying Fortress resides at AMVETS Post #56 in Tulare, CA. She was built in 1945, and served as a “Mother Ship” during the testing of the first drones over the Marshall Islands. She also is possibly the last survivor of Operation Crossroads, the A-Bombs tests carried out in the Pacific. She was decommissioned in 1958, and flown to Tulare by 4-Star General Maurice A. Preston, who schooled in Tulare, thus her name. http://www.aviationmuseum.eu/World/North_America/
The Intermediate Air Force One served as the President’s official transport from Gerald Ford to George W. Bush, and was preferred by Barbara Bush’s as her favorite aircraft for all their travel. It is a McDonnell Douglas VC-9, and resides at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, CA. www.castleairmuseum.org
