B-17 Bomber on display

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Jan 27, 2004
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Richmond, VA

Anyone ever toured a B-17? I absolutely cannot wait until I get to look at that beauty up close tomorrow. Wish I could afford the $900 for me and my son to go up in her.
 
It'll be a lot smaller than one would think inside. Very neat though!!! It will give you a sense of what those air crews went through. I got to go inside a B-24 where my Dad was a tail gunner. The guy let me crawl back to where the seat and guns were. I was too big to get in the seat. I couldn't imagine sitting there and German planes coming at and by you. His ammo was behind him on both sides of the bomber. The waist gunners had to reload him if he ran of ammo. Have fun!!! Take lots of pictures!!!
 
I’ve climbed around inside a couple of them. Got a tour from the pilot of one a few years back in Colorado, JEFFCO airport in Broomfield. It was awesome! And it was surprising how tight everything was...
 
I am so glad to see that they are still offering rides!

Toured a couple of B-17's and a B-29. They are very small.
 
I forget the organization but they had a twin seat P-51 Mustang that I wanted to pay for a ride but I was busy and out of town that day.

It was a real P-51 and not a replica that I see at air shows.
 
I crawled through two different ones . Neither one was giving rides at the time . My Dad was a Ball Turret gunner . 457th Bomb Group based at Glatton , U.K. 28 missions . Three very hard landings . Two were belly landings and one was dead stick , short of the runway . Ran through a hedgerow .
 
I cherished my time helping pilot Mac McCauley fix his broken B17 bomb bay universal.
He knew I'd do anything to keep them flying... after all the Collins Foundation's greatest
joy is making others happy...

Note: although LoveJoy is still in business offering parts Mac needed
a quick overnight custom fabrication of the 1944 part to meet
ride commitments...

Viya Con Dios to my friend Mac and to all the crew...

Mac had flown for the Collings for 20 years and was the highest time
B17 pilot in the USA with over 7,300 hours... He was also the Safety
Officer for the foundation...

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I forget the organization but they had a twin seat P-51 Mustang that I wanted to pay for a ride but I was busy and out of town that day.

It was a real P-51 and not a replica that I see at air shows.

Collings Foundation has a dual control P51C Betty Jane... I shot this video logging time among a gaggle of B25 B24 B17 from McClellan AFB to Minden Nevada... It was a mind altering experience...

The whole story posted on BITOG...

[video:youtube]
 
I’ve climbed around inside a couple of them. Got a tour from the pilot of one a few years back in Colorado, JEFFCO airport in Broomfield. It was awesome! And it was surprising how tight everything was...

ive wandered around inside a couple. The first thing I noticed how hard it would be for the 2 pilots to get out. That canopy is fixed at least in the 2 I looked at. You got to go back to the bomb bay or worse forward through that tiny hole between the pilots feet to the nose . Then slither back under where you were sitting and squeeze through that tiny bottom hatch you see crews boarding through in pictures.. Unless it was on autopilot or being held straight and level i doubt you’d make it. once spinning I doubt anyone up front stood a chance.
Maybe some were difference or the ones I saw were modified I can’t say. I did own a plane for a long time though and know what cab open from what can’t .
 
Great day, it definately was not as big as I expected. Lots of 50 caliber machine guns, but I would hate to be in that old bird if enemy fighters were around since the top speed was under 200mph. They had the rear turret blocked off but you could see back there. No chance my 47 year old self could ever fit back there.

As a side note, if you decide to take a flight in this plane please ignore the dry rot on the tires.🙈
 
The only have memories of my Grandfather who flew on them during World War II on them during his few years out of Scotland as Weatherman. I resume he had another role but never mentioned them.
 
My dad graduated high school in 3 years to join the Army Air corps, went to west-point and became an officer, then Texas and was trained as a Bombardier and every position on the (B24, and B25) except pilot, and was in training as a Bombardier for the B29 when the war ended. Sometimes I think that if the U.S. had not dropped the A bombs on Japan he would have been over there.

One time he told me that the flag at the training base in Texas had to fly at half mask one day for each person who was killed in training at that base, and that after the war was over they had to fly the flag at half mask every day for a year and a half to catch up to the back-log of all the names they had to fly the flag at half mask for.
 
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I took a flight on the Collings Foundation's B-24 Liberator back in 2001 in honor of my dad who was a Navigator on one with the 454th BG out of San Giovanni, Italy. In 2003 I took a flight on the ill fated B-17, the 909 which crashed a few years ago killing all aboard. Both flights were out of Palomar Airport in Carlsbad CA and were down the beautiful coast to La Jolla and back up again.

I have to tell you that there was nothing like sitting inside of one of those warbirds, smelling the AV gas and hydraulic fluid and hearing the whine of those radial engines turning over and coughing and spitting one at a time and then roaring to life. I got goosebumps as it taxied and then lifted off the runway and thought about what my dad, not yet 21 years old went through.

Once aloft we were allowed to walk around the plane but not allowed to enter the cockpit or get inside the turrets. I crawled down into the nose to the Navigator & Bombardier compartments to see what the view must have been like from there and then down the catwalk through the bomb bay and to the waist gunner positions which were open to the sky that day.

I have to recommend to anyone if you get a chance to see these planes and even walk through them, it is well worth the modest admission price. I think after the crash of the 909 that being able to take a flight may be a thing of the past unfortunately.
 
Yes! I've been through the CAF's B-17 in Mesa, AZ. My dad plunked down the $ and got to take a ride in it since he lives just a stone's throw from the airport. Also got to tour the B-29 when it was here at Youngstown last summer. May sound weird, but I'd love to sit in the flight engineer's seat more than the pilot's seat. I'll have to save up my pennies so I can take a ride in it someday.

The B-29 seems smaller than you'd expect when you get up close, but the 4 R-3350s make a heck of a sound when she's on approach.

A couple weekends ago I found out there was a B-17 visiting near Akron. Heard that heavenly sound of radial engines and went running for the nearest window as it flew over our house.
 
Darn I wish.

We have 2 yearly local-ish drive in/ fly in shows, but they were canceled this year because of China.

Supposedly they were going to feature a B17 this year. Last year they had a few P51’s (or some similar model?) and a Ford Tri Motor.
 
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