{"id":12193,"date":"2019-03-09T18:40:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T18:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=12193"},"modified":"2019-03-09T18:40:15","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T18:40:15","slug":"liberty-university-students-work-on-restoration-project-for-d-day-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/virginia\/liberty-university-students-work-on-restoration-project-for-d-day-memorial\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Liberty University Student\u2019s Work on Restoration Project for D-Day Memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Liberty-DDay-pic.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12194\" width=\"288\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Liberty-DDay-pic.jpg 320w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Liberty-DDay-pic-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>With the 75th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy\napproaching, students and faculty from the aeronautics program at Liberty\nUniversity have been working to restore a 1940s Aeronca L-3 \u201cGrasshopper\u201d plane\nfor the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford that will be on display June 6th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For several years, New London Airport founder and World War\nII veteran Rucker Tibbs would clean the aircraft and prepare it to be displayed\nnear the reflection pool at the memorial. After Tibbs\u2019 death in 2015, Bob Howell,\nchairman of Liberty University\u2019s aviation maintenance technician school and his\nstudents stepped in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liberty aeronautics student Matthew Moyer said working on the L-3 will help him in the general aviation field after he graduates. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty practical experience,\u201d Moyer said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s\nnice to work on something that will be on display. I wanted to play a part in\ngetting that plane ready for D-Day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/L-3-fuselage.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12195\" width=\"279\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/L-3-fuselage.jpg 320w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/L-3-fuselage-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 279px) 100vw, 279px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The students will learn about the history of the airplane as\nwell as hone their skills in aircraft maintenance. The goal of this project is\nto keep the authenticity of the airplane during the restoration, but there will\nbe a small change to paint scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe only thing we are going to do differently when we do\nthe paint is put the invasion stripes on it to match it with the Normandy\ninvasion,\u201d Howell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plane was donated by Morton Lester and has been on\ndisplay at the National D-Day Memorial for about 12 years. This aircraft is\nvery rare as it is one of only 19 surviving L-3 Grasshoppers, according to the\nFederal Aviation Administration\u2019s aircraft registry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The National D-Day Memorial Foundation is very grateful to\nhave the Liberty University\u2019s support with this project and the students are\nvery excited to be a part of the restoration. Everyone looks forward to seeing\nthe finished project on display this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the 75th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy approaching, students and faculty from the aeronautics program at Liberty University have been working to restore a 1940s Aeronca L-3 \u201cGrasshopper\u201d plane for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford that will be on display June 6th. For several years, New London Airport founder and World War [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-virginia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12196,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193\/revisions\/12196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}