DH-4 Repair Team’s Active Volunteers
John Bierens
Full-time Project Manager, IA certified; He worked in Cessna flight testing. John worked 40 years in aviation. He is a military artifact collector.
Jerry Carpenter
Jerry is a retired manufacturing engineer with 44 years of experience at Textron. He is a wood expert!
Bruce Ernt
Bruce is a retired aeronautical engineer who graduated from the University of Illinois. He worked for 8 years for McDonnell Aircraft and for 25 years for MEC in Neodosha, Kansas.
Mike Hutton
Mike is a retired Spirit/Boeing structures design engineer. He fabricated many of the DH-4’s landing gear parts at GoCreate. Mike is the Bleckley landing gear lead tech.
Kevin Larcom
Kevin is self-employed, owning Larcom’s Custom Woodwork, and makes high-end wood projects for his customers. He uses only word-of-mouth advertising.
Floyd Moody
Floyd is the engine team leader. He is a US Air Force veteran mechanic who worked on C-141 Star Lifters. Floyd is originally from North Carolina.
Terry Mulvaney
Terry is a US Navy veteran and is A&P certified. He is a licensed pilot with 19,000 hours. He flew for several regional airlines out of Colorado. He is a wood expert and a history buff.
Mike Olson
Mike is a US Army Vietnam veteran. He is a career aviation employee with various Wichita aviation companies. His specialty is avionics and instrumentation. Mike runs the Bleckley Parts Room. There, he documents, catalogs, and stores all parts.
Chuck Perkins
Chuck is a private pilot and retired CEO of Aero-Mach, an aerospace parts distributor. Before that, he was employed at Textron Aviation in business management, accounting.
Steve Roehl
Steve is a US Navy veteran and a retired Textron Aviation fabrication engineer. He is A&P certified, a tool guy, and a metal worker. Steve is a Civil War firearms collector and is a member of the Wichita Militaria Collectors Club.
Ed Scott
Ed was a US Air Force missile and jet engine mechanic with 26 years of military service. Next, he worked for 27 years at Beech Aircraft as an A & P mechanic and Starship composite materials technician, and woodworker. Ed is a volunteer at the Kansas Aviation Museum, and he did most of the restoration of their Beech Staggerwing. He is is the Bleckley DH-4 “wing guy”.
Bruce Witbart
Part-Time Volunteers
Allison Atkinson
Allison is a member of the Air Capital 99’s, the International Organization of Women Pilots.
Reed Bennett
Wayne Bormann
Wayne is a part-time project manager for Bleckley Foundation. He is IA certified and he owns an airstrip with a hangar. Wayne restores and maintains private aircraft, his own and for others. He is a Vietnam veteran. He took part in the November, 1965 battle of La Drang as a soldier of the 1st Air Cavalry Division (“We Were Soldiers”).
Bernhard Gildemeister
Bernhard is a German national and is A&P certified. He has lived and workedd in Wichita since the early 1990s.
Malissa Long
Malissa is a fabric upholsterer and seamstress. She worked for 3 years at Weckworth Manufacturing.
John McKinley
John is a former farmer/rancher in Norton County, Kansas. He works in Physical Therapy at St. Francis Hospital, and is a carpenter and welder.
Tony Noakes
Tony is an aviation technician.
Dave Nolte
Dave was an 11 year pilot in the US Air Force. He recently retired from Textron Aviation as VP of Flight Operations. He built and flies a Van’s RV-7A.
Lynn Redmer
Jon Reed
Jon grew up working metal and doing paint and body work. He hammered out wingtips and built spars for a FW-190 in the early 1990s.
Jon Sommers
Jon is an aviation technician.
Maggie Small
Maggie is a fabric upholsterer. She has a Cobra 17 commercial sewing machine. She works at American Leather Works.