The Martin B-26 Marauder was designed to meet the U.S. Army Air Corps' demand for a high-speed medium bomber. Martin's proposal was considered so superior that the company received an 'off the drawing board' contract for 201 aircraft in 1939, and the first production B-26 flew by year's end.
Shortly after America entered the Second World War in 1941, the Army winterized aircraft at the Sacramento Air Depot and ferried them north to Elmendorf Field near Anchorage to help defend the northern territory. The long journey required several refueling stops, one of them at Watson Lake, Yukon, where many aircraft crashed taking off or landing. This aircraft landed short of the runway and crashed on January 16, 1942; the damage was severe enough that it was scavenged for parts and dumped into the lake at war's end. Its nose section was recovered in July 2009.
Our team was hired by the Yukon Government to perform a conditions assessment, develop a treatment and maintenance plan, and implement specified treatments. To prolong the life of the artifact, we cleaned and stabilized components while preserving the aircraft as a historic crash — maintaining the evidence of damage, patina, and its scavenged state.
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