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B-1-Bee Press Party
Article by Mary Skipworth
Photography by Don Koke  
NOTE: Click on pictures for a larger view. Press your browser's back button to return here. A press party was held for the B-1-Bee airplane September 3, 2002. Chicago and Kansas City had their cows, Washington D.C. has its donkeys and elephants, and River Festival 2003 will have our artistic airplanes downtown. Babs Mellor, the grand dame of Wichita sculpture, and her cohorts were given the honor of shaping and decorating the very first airplane.
Paul Foley, the creative genius of the morning sculpture class, came up with the idea of the bumble bee that is now the B-1-BEE. This exercise proves that even a dull, boxy plane with absolutely no redeeming qualities can become a masterpiece when Wichita's artists become involved.
A ground crew of about 15 artists showed up to work the first night. Everyone was talking and no one was listening; however, Babs kept saying, "It'll all work out. It'll all work out." That is how she was dubbed 'The Air Traffic Controller.' We sawed, argued, sanded, argued, glued, argued...
And, Carl, an old Soap Box Derby man, saved the day with his knowledge of Bondo and such. Lois came up with the salad bowls for eyes, plus a stinger--a.k.a. as a funnel. Flexible magnetic wands served as the Bee's antennae, and nerf baseball bats became bombs with a lot of help from Roger Weidman, and clothes brushes became mandibles courtesy of Pat's imagination. Roger came up with the idea of a mascot and Pat created Miss B.B. to put on the side of the plane. The rest was paint and the talents of Pat and Bev.
Our official titles were:
Babs Mellor, Air Traffic Controller
Pat Maechtlen, Pilot
Carl Picher, Co-pilot
Paul Foley, Navigator
Bev Oettle, Flight Engineer
Marion Weidman, Chief Flight Crew
Sandy Carpenter, Flight Crew
John Cravens, Flight Crew
Carol Overstake, Flight Crew
Roger Weidman, HERO and Bombadier
Jacque Monk, Crew Chief
Tom Monk, Assistant Crew Chief
Lois Amick, Maintenance Crew
Allison Harrison, Maintenance Crew
Brenda Horsck, Maintenance Crew
Janet Kodel, Maintenance Crew
Pauline Cravens, Ground Crew
Marilyn Stanfield, Ground Crew
Don Koke, Ground Crew
Mary E. Skipworth, Ground Crew
Harry Oettle, Photo & Graphic Chief
Phil Mellor, Chaplain
Plus
The ever important behind the scene people:
 John D'Angelo and staff of City Arts fame
Bernadette Bradshaw
Dora Timmerman of the Arts Council and her charming and helpful assistants
Carol Ware
And last but not least, Roger and Marion Weidman, who generously let us use their AIR CONDITIONED facility to work in. Also, Roger went above and beyond the call of husbandly duty to help us with the metal work. Thank you so much.
Channel 3 came to the press party and we had our 30 seconds of fame that night at 6:25 pm.
AND, we'd like to thank our sponsors, but we don't know who they are! ...yet.
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