Bill Denlinger used in fly in planes over the Atlantic when he was on anti-submarine patrol during WWII. As part of the Naval Air Force, his crew would leave Bermuda on 14-hour shifts in bombers once every eight days.

“We were fortunate not to get shot down,” Denlinger said.

After two years and three months of service, he returned to his job as a toolmaker apprentice at Frigidaire Corporation in Moraine. He worked for the company for 15 years, perfecting his trade as a design engineer. He worked for a number of smaller companies before getting a job at Mead in the early seventies, and then later, as a lead designer on an ink jet printer for Mead Technology Laboratories.

Denlinger retired at the age of 65, but his life still revolves around airplanes and designing. As a volunteer at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, he was recently recognized as Team Wright-Patt Volunteer of the Quarter. 88th Air Base Wing Vice Commander Col. Daniel Semsel gave him a framed certificate. As a volunteer, Denlinger produces superb machine drawings that are used by restoration machinists to recreate aircraft parts from the past.

“I came in as a machinist, and they discovered that I could work on a drawing board creating drawings for the toolmakers,” said Denlinger. “I give my drawings to the builders; there are a number of airplanes there with my designed parts.”

Since 1998, he has built up 6, 665 hours of service at the museum. His projects have included drawings for P-47 Thunderbolt gun-mount assembly, the A-1H Skyraider, and the B-17F Memphis Belle. Denlinger has also designed structures for displaying aircraft engines in the museum galleries. He used to volunteer two, 7-hour days a week, but had to cut that back to only one day a week.

“We’re down to just one family car now. I get the car on Thursdays,” said Denlinger who shares the car with his wife Ann.

While not spending a full day at the museum, Denlinger enjoys working around his five-acre property or making wooden mailboxes. The Denlingers moved here in 1965 and raised three children who graduated from Springboro High School: Mark, Robin, and Lisa.