The airplane and displays of artifacts, including wartime uniforms, a flight suit, pilot wings and rare color archival footage, will be open to the public at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton on Thursday.
The Memphis Belle reportedly completed 25 combat flights over Nazi-occupied Europe - running it's last mission on May 17, 1943.
The Memphis Belle was popularly known for its risqué nose art - a scantily clad "pinup girl." (motivations much?)
The plane was moved to Ohio in 2005 after being on display for decades in Memphis, Tennessee, where the plane deteriorated in an outdoor display. It took some 55,000 hours to restore the plane to its wartime glory.
Linda Morgan, the widow of pilot Robert Morgan said:
"I've seen pictures of that plane when it was in tatters and this, it looks better than when it came out of the factory."The late pilot, Robert Morgan named the aircraft after his wartime girlfriend, Margaret Polk, of Memphis and chose the artwork from a George Petty illustration in Esquire magazine, according to the museum.
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