Restoration Projects

Do you build, weld or do fabric work?
Join our restoration crew!

These dedicated volunteers show up every Friday at the OAHS Restoration Hangar and lovingly work on the projects underway.

**Earlier this year OAHS had a guest staying in the museum hangar–**
Tim Talen’s Stearman C3B Special.
This restoration took 25 years!

Nearly complete:
1931 Great Lakes,
flown by Dorothy Hester and Tex Rankin

Member Ron Bartley provided guidance and support for this project for many years and he has passed the baton to Tim Talen, who is overseeing the restoration of this famous biplane of the Golden Age of Aviation. Both Dorothy Hester and Tex Rankin flew this ship with great skill and to much acclaim. It is being restored to the “Rankin” configuration, which Tex flew in airshows throughout the West. Support for this major recreation has come from many sources, and it continues to need added funding. The engine cowling is well underway, with side panels and top cowl complete. Making progress thanks to our dedicated volunteers!

1930 Rupert Special

Unique to Oregon Aviation is the number and variety of homebuilt aircraft built during the Thirties. One such aircraft if the Rupert “Special” designed and built by pioneer aviator Walt Rupert of Beaverton, Oregon. The plane is now undergoing an extensive restoration under the direction of Mr. Dave McEwen; much help is needed. Both funding for ongoing work and acquisition of the correct engine – a Salmson AD-9 – are pressing issues. This will be a significant “heritage” aircraft in the Society’s collection. No completion date has been established.

1931 Eyerly Whiffle Hen

Lee Eyerly, along with some of his flight school students, built this little two-place monoplane in 1931. He built two of these aircraft but only one still exists, and it deserves to find a final home in the state of its birth. We are on a mission to bring it back to Oregon and restore it to its original condition.