The Pacific Aviation Museum, scheduled to open in December, is looking for more folks like Vince Wallis.

Wallis, 83, of Kailua, drops by Hangar 54 at Ford Island on Tuesdays and Thursdays to lend a hand in preparations for the museum's opening. Sometimes he brings along his son, Paul Wallis, a captain for Hawaiian Airlines.

Wallis was a B-25 Mitchell bomber pilot in World War II. "Flew 'em for three years and never feathered an engine," he says.

The B-25s also cost him a significant amount of his hearing. "It was a noisy aircraft," Wallis said, tugging at his right ear.

He also flew B-24 Liberators during World War II and a B-29 Superfortress in the Korean War.

Vince and Paul Wallis have been steadily working at disassembling a B-25 in Hangar 54 that was on display for years at Hickam Air Force Base.

"We must have taken out 1,000 bolts and rivets," Wallis said.

The salt air had its way with the old war bird when it was out in the weather on display all those years, and the corrosion is so bad it can't be restored, said Syd Jones, aircraft restoration director for the museum.

So it will be disassembled and shipped to a salvage operator in California.

"It will be salvaged for parts," said Jones, who is a certified B-25 pilot and mechanic. "Also, pieces of it could be used in movies that depict plane crashes."

But another B-25 Mitchell is on the way. The museum found one in Chino, Calif.

"It's a B-25 Mitchell," Jones said. "The same type that Doolittle used in the raid on Tokyo off the Hornet."

In 1942, Lt. Col. James Doolittle's flight of 16 B-25s from the Navy carrier USS Hornet bombed Japan in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The B-25 in California is one of 17 vintage aircraft that Allan Palmer, the museum's executive director, says have been acquired for the museum.

He is particularly proud of an original Mitsubishi/Nakajima A6M2 Type 21 Zero fighter, the same type that came in the waves that attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Bullet holes in the hangar doors and gouges in the old concrete runway from the attack are still visible and no doubt will be considered as interesting a display as the museum will offer.

"The Zero was found in the Solomon Islands in 1968," Palmer said. It was restored to flying condition and has performed in air shows across the United States.

The Zero should be arriving for assembly in a few weeks.

Another rare acquisition is an F4F-3 Grumman Wildcat. Only about a half-dozen are known to exist today, Palmer said. The Wildcat was purchased from a private party in Seattle.

And then there's the N2S-3 Stearman training plane flown by President George H.W. Bush when he was training to be a Navy pilot in World War II. It's in storage at Honolulu International Airport.

The museum is a private, nonprofit entity, planned to highlight the history of World War II in the Pacific Theater along with the Arizona Memorial, the USS Missouri and the Bowfin Museum.

The estimated cost for the ambitious project has increased from $50 million to $75 million, Palmer said. Plans call for displays in hangars 37, 54 and 79. There also will be sections about the Korean and Vietnam wars. In addition to aircraft, there will be historical artifacts.

The museum site on Ford Island will occupy 16 acres of the 450-acre island, as well as the three historic hangars and the familiar barber-pole-painted tower that was built as a submarine escape training tower and converted to an airfield control tower after the attack.

The museum is expected to open Hangar 37 this Dec. 7, with a focus on the attack on Pearl Harbor and beginning of World War II up through Doolittle's audacious raid on Tokyo.

Palmer says about $14 million of the needed $75 million has been raised from federal, state and private sources.

He calls the push to open by Dec. 7 "a very intense effort. We've got a lot to do this summer," he said. Palmer estimates he will need 40 to 50 volunteers by Christmas. Right now, he has about 14.

"The important thing now is to find the right docents and restoration volunteers," Palmer said.

The docents, he said, could be retired educators, not necessarily veterans or historians. They would make a presentation at a particular exhibit and explain its significance. He wants human, interactive displays, not static exhibits that people just stand and read.

That's where the restoration comes in. Palmer, who worked as director of the San Diego Air and Space Museum, wants the restoration to be ongoing as people walk through the hangars, a sort of living history project.

He thinks this would be especially appealing to schoolchildren.

"We had kids in San Diego — when we mentioned Pearl Harbor — who would say, "Who's she?" he said.

"But when they see some guy working on a plane and he tells them he worked on it on an aircraft carrier or helped build it in the factory, that's when they respond and start to learn."

Which is where people like Vince Wallis come in.

Wallis stood by the B-25 in Hangar 54 modestly recounting his flying experiences.

In the spring of 1945, he was stationed in Massachusetts, heading for Europe. "They told us the war was over in Europe, so let's go to the Pacific," he said.

He arrived in California and flew the B-25, training bombardiers and navigators. He was readying for Japan, he said, "when they told us they'd dropped the bomb. We said, 'What bomb?' " The Pacific war was over, too.

In the Korean War, he was to fly B-29 raids, but "the war ended the day we arrived in Japan."

Wallis gave a little grin. "Every time, they quit when they saw me coming," he said.

He retired as an Air Force major in 1964.

So why does he do this?

"I have three grandsons who kept me busy, taking them to school, taking them fishing. But they're in college now. I wanted something meaningful to do, and this is a natural."

Restoration chief Jones said he hopes that once more planes arrive, he'll get more people like Wallis.

"I've had 30 or 40 calls from people who say they are interested in restoring the planes," he said. "Little by little, we're doing more and more."

Reach John Windrow at jwindrow@honoluluadvertiser.com.