MILWAUKIE, Ore. — The popular roadside attraction that sat outside the Bomber Restaurant in Milwaukie was the result of a $5 bet by Art Lacey among friends during a game of poker.
"One of the fellows there was talking about different ideas for gas stations and things like that," said Lacey's grandson, Jayson Scott. "My grandfather said, 'I've been thinking about going and purchasing one of those surplus World War II Bomber airplanes and I could use it as a canopy over my gas station, and it would become a roadside attraction.'"
The guy didn't believe Lacey would ever do something like that.
"My grandfather, his personality type is: As soon as you told him he couldn't do something, that's the only thing he wanted to do," Scott said.
Lacey flew to Oklahoma and went to Altus Air Force Base to talk with the chief of the Aircraft Disposal Division about purchasing a B-17 Bomber.
It was 1947, two years after World War II had ended. After the war had ended the bomber was phased out and the surplus was no longer needed.
Lacey purchased his first plane, a war combat veteran plane for $13,750. Over the next couple of days he practiced high speed taxiing; he'd get the tail off the ground and then set it back down again. After days of doing that, he was ready to get it off the ground and see if he could fly the plane by himself.
Not wanting to push his luck more than he should, Lacey turned back to land the plane.
"Well he went to cycle the landing gear and the landing gear didn't come down," Scott said. He said his grandfather did everything he could think of to get the landing gear to come down, but ultimately crash-landed the plane on the runway skidding off and hitting a parked B-17G Flying Fortress.
Scott was sold another plane, but this time only paid $1,500 for it.
"It had everything on it!" Scott says.
The plane had never flown in combat, but with the new plane came an agreement that Lacey would have someone else fly the plane back to Portland.
The plane was used as a canopy at the gas station along Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard for almost 70 years. A year after moving it there, the family started the restaurant. In 1996, the gas station closed down, unable to compete with nearby gas stations.
"Bringing this giant bird, Art would call it a bird, with a wingspan of 102 feet, the canopy was huge. It drew attention from all over Oregon and people would line up just to come see the aircraft and come get gas," said Terry Scott, Jayson's wife.
Jayson Scott is the CEO of the B-17 Alliance Foundation. Terry is the Executive Director. The foundation is a nonprofit working to restore the airplane to its original condition and get it flying again.
"People going through and touring the inside literally walked through seven sets of floorboards in the plane. That caused a lot of initial stress on the belly of the airplane and flexing," Jayson Scott said.
Bird poop ruined the aluminum flashing on the wings, the heavy rains of Oregon leaked water inside and the million or more visitors that walked through the plane took whatever wasn't bolted down.
"People went through and basically anything they could get their hands on, they'd flex it back and forth and break it off. When we started the restoration most of the stuff had been stripped out."
In 2014, the plane was dismantled and moved to an airport in Aurora, then eventually moved to hangar space in Salem at McNary Field.
"We have to go through the entire plane," Jayson Scott says.
Wings are separated from the body. The controls in the cockpit are in another area of the hangar and the engines sit off to the side.
"We have to inspect every nook and cranny. Every gusset, every bolt, every fastener, everything has to be gone through. It's well in the process."
Every piece is taken off and is in the years long process of getting restored.
Volunteers are donating thousands of hours to make the $6 million restoration possible. Scott said it'll take another $3 million to find a permanent home for it.
"It is expensive, there's nothing cheap about it."
Scott said he expects the plane to be finished by around 2035, and the Scotts said emphatically, "The bomber will fly again in honor of the Greatest Generation"
Recently the family announced that the restaurant was going out of business. The coronavirus pandemic had taken its toll on the restaurant.
"There is a little bit of peace with it because it's like, we did our best with it and we kind of went out on top," Jayson Scott said. "And I wish it was different, but maybe it's just time for a different season in life."