Cold War jet restoration almost finished in Winnipeg

The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada is working to restore a Cold War-era jet to its former glory.

For more than a year, volunteers have been working in a hangar to restore an F-86 Sabre, a fighter jet made by Canadair that flew for NATO.

"For a period of time in the 50s and early 60s, this thing owned the skies," said Marsh Pettitt, head of restoration with the aviation museum.

This particular plane was built in 1958 and was later sold to Germany in the 1970s. The plane eventually ended up in Pakistan, and Pettitt believes it was involved in the India-Pakistan War. After its service, it made its way to the old aviation museum in Winnipeg, before being displayed outdoors.

"It's an old plane, and it's been sitting outside for 50-plus years. So everything's corroded and seized together," said volunteer Roger Whittaker.

Restoration started last June, and they soon realized they had their work cut out for them.

"It's putting up a fight against us," Pettitt said.

The challenges started when they found what was holding the plane together.

"When we started taking it apart, that's when we discovered that things that should have been screwed together weren't," Pettitt said. "They were held together with construction adhesive."

"Each one, we have to drill out two rivets, clean it up, re-rivet another nut plate back in, and then hope on the other end of it half the screw isn't sitting on the other side, which is another problem," Henry Enns, another volunteer helping with the plane, said.

The team was undaunted, and slowly, but surely, it was beginning to resemble the fearsome fighter of old.

While it won't be able to fly again, the plan is to have it restored by late September in time for the aviation museum's 50th anniversary celebrations.

"We've come a long way, I love it," said Enns. "We still have a ways to go, but it's getting there."