The Restoration

Pitcairn NC97W,  PA-7S S/N 149 was purchased by John Machamer in 2015 from the Desmond collection. Built in 1930 and then remanufactured at the factory in 1935, NC97W(A) had logged only 400 hours from 1935 until she went out of service in 1940.  It would be 86 years before she flew again!  As a result, she retained her original beauty along with many features which would have been lost had she stayed flying and/or modified for crop dusting, etc.  The cowlings, lights, instruments, engine, exhaust, etc., etc. are mostly original. Thank you Walter Halberg (owner 1939-1986) I wish you were here to see what you saved.

I was the luckiest man alive when I stumbled across this once in a lifetime project and honored to take it on. We resisted the temptation to “over restore” her. Matching the original dope fabric finish with modern materials and installing silver cad hardware required time and effort but paid off.  Leaving some previous repairs and some bumps and bruises attests to her heritage and story.  Using the original assembly details that would have been used in the 1930s like Five-Tuck Navy splice and wrapped and soldered cable ends finished the airplane off exactly as it would have appeared rolling out of the factory in 1935! We are very proud of the results. The most used word we heard to describe her while at Oshkosh was – stunning! Having noted aircraft restoration experts praise our final efforts made us realize we made the right choices and what a special aircraft she is.

As with any aircraft restoration of this scale, it was completed in stages spanning a number of years.

Highlighted here are the major phases of the project and some of the more historically interesting components.