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Re the Swoose, check my post #12. I got to go through her during a tour of the old Silver Hill NASM shop.

Which means as authentic a piece of history as possigle, but she'll never be able to fly.

Talked to one of the guys working on the Memphis Belle when I was in Dayton last fall, they are restoring her in the same way the NASM does, which means retaining/conserving the original structure and systems, replacing only those items which are missing or so corroded that they can't be reinstalled.

NASM does go as far as possible in preserving and restoring their artifacts to working condition. I've been told that Enola Gay is probably flyable with minimal work at this point ... just that no one is even going to think of trying it because 1) it would just be plain insane to risk a priceless national treasure and 2) once you start operating a highly complex, old machine parts that you really want to preserve are going to need to be replaced.

Memphis Belle is probably the same; I haven't read or heard anything regarding major structural weakness or corrosion that would require new things like wing spars that would make the aircraft flyable at the expense of the historic fabric. I have heard that her interior - wiring, cabling, instruments, etc - aren't all that original, or even contemporary in nature (the folks down at Mud Island did the best that they could with the resources they had ...) The Belle restoration is probably going to approximate what Paul Allen and his FHC does with their restorations ...