Colin Powers takes a moment to reflect on the restoration process of “Rosie the Rocketer” before moving the plane back to a hanger at the Sunriver Airport.

SUNRIVER — After a year and a half of work, “Rosie The Rocketer,” a WWII-era Piper L-4H airplane, has returned to its original 1944 condition, when it was outfitted with bazookas to blast Nazi tanks in France.

La Pine resident Colin Powers, who recently completed extensive restoration of the plane in his garage, has restored many World War II planes. But bringing the plane flown by U.S. Army pilot and WWII hero Charles “Bazooka Charlie” Carpenter back to life was his favorite project, he said.

“It’s been an honor to do this airplane for the family of Maj. Carpenter,” Powers, 84, said. “I’m very happy the way it turned out.”

During combat in France, Carpenter — who was fighting in the 4th Armored Division of Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army — strapped three bazookas to each wing of the frail reconnaissance plane.

Carpenter used that plane, which he nicknamed “Rosie The Rocketer,” to blow up multiple Panzer tanks north of the town of Nancy.

After the war, Carpenter returned to the U.S. and became a high school teacher. The plane stayed in Europe, where it eventually wound up in an Austrian aviation museum.

After a long series of events, Massachusetts artifacts nonprofit The Collings Foundation tracked down the plane and shipped it to Powers to renovate in early 2019.

Powers said he finished the renovation right on schedule, as the plane will be sent back to Massachusetts in late July, where it will be on display at The Collings Foundation’s museum.

Originally, Powers planned to get the plane licensed with the Federal Aviation Administration and fly it at an experimental aircraft convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this summer. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled those plans.

“It just saddens me that I can’t fly it,” Powers said.

Still, the plane — which sits in a hangar at the Sunriver Airport — looks just as it did in 1944. The bottoms of both wings have “invasion stripes” painted on them, which many allied WWII planes had around the time of the Normandy invasion, to prevent troops from shooting at their own aircraft, Powers said.

There’s also a black-and-white photo in the cockpit of Carpenter’s wife and daughter. The photo was given to Powers by the daughter in the photo, Carol Apacki.

“A lot of guys in these planes, they put up a picture of (actress) Betty Grable, but not him,” Powers said.

In October, Powers invited Apacki — now a 77-year-old resident of Granville, Ohio — and Apacki’s daughter, Erin Pata, to see the plane. Pata, a graphic designer, re-painted the “Rosie The Rocketer” logo on the side of the plane in an identical fashion to her grandfather’s original design.

“She did a masterful job, and really worked hard to make it exactly like it was in the original,” Apacki said.

Apacki said she’s kept in contact with Powers during the plane’s renovation.

“Awesome is the word that comes to mind; it’s unbelievable,” Apacki said. “It’s the ending of a really long journey.”

Apacki hopes that the restoration of her father’s plane will show younger generations the power and bravery that ordinary people can possess.

“You realize that this is the raw courage of everyday Americans who had to fight this war, and my dad was one of many,” she said. I have this whole new appreciation for what was at stake, and the odds against them.”

Powers will soon have to say goodbye to “Rosie The Rocketer.” He lamented not being able to easily visit it, as Hudson, Massachusetts, is an entire country away.

But Apacki, who lives much closer to the plane’s eventual new home, said she’ll make sure to take a “troop of grandchildren” to see their great-grandfather’s plane once the COVID-19 pandemic dies down.

“We’ll take advantage of every opportunity to be a part of its presentation.”