Ground Control to Major Tom

Black Widow Compressor Before Restoration

Former National Air and Space Museum (NASM) conservation intern and current graduate fellow at Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation Claire Taggart has recently written about her work restoring a World War II Black Widow Compressor.

Black Widow Compressor After Restoration

In her blog post, Claire discusses the process of restoring the General Electric compressor used in the turret of a WWII-era Northrop P-61C Black Widow, which was suffering from mass amounts of corrosion. Claire worked to remove the corrosion and then find a way to safely store and handle the part.

For a first-hand account of the process, read Claire’s blog on NASM’s website here.