B-17 Sentimental Journey visits us in Cranbrook, BC

[Snagglefoot]

I’ll bet a lot of Bittoggers have seen this plane based in Arizona. I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing the plane flying overhead. It and the B-25, Made in the Shade are touring the USA and a bit of Canada this summer. We are very appreciative and awed by the planes.

Here are a couple of screen shots.

 

[Cdn17Sport6MT]

I'd certainly want to visit/inspect these aircraft... on the ground - but I would be leary of going for a flight. Commercial aircraft maintenance, airframe crack inspection processes, "engineered" maintenance is truly inspiring (and foments confidence)... but a classic, that gives me pause. How can they ever have the budget (and the maintenance organization and maintenance competence) to come close to what a commercial operation does?

 

[loneryder]

WWII planes used to fly into Ft Myers, every winter for a show. Their sound is definitely unique and very cool.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

WWII planes used to fly into Ft Myers, every winter for a show. Their sound is definitely unique and very cool.

Yes when I used to work at Boeing in Seattle they brought in a B-29 and refurded her Google Fifi. When they had her just about finished the started taxi runs. A very unique sounding plane for sure.

 

[wpod]

Those guys had grande huevos !

 

[Dodgetracker]

There are no B29 engines left anywhere in the world to use, they are using A1 Skyraider engines on B29 named Doc so I imagine that’s what’s used on Fifi as well.

 

[nomas]

Sentimental Journey is painted with the markings of the 457th Bomb Group . My Dad was in that group . Glatton Station 130 .

 

[Number_35]

Yes when I used to work at Boeing in Seattle they brought in a B-29 and refurded her Google Fifi. When they had her just about finished the started taxi runs. A very unique sounding plane for sure.

We visited FIFI at the Museum of Flight in Seattle back in '95. I need to get the slides digitized.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

We visited FIFI at the Museum of Flight in Seattle back in '95. I need to get the slides digitized.

Yes at the time I was working about a half mile north of there at the two Boeing Seattle paint hangers.

 

[loneryder]

The Air & Space museum at Dulles AP has a WWII big bomber engine on display. Can't remember the aircraft it was on. Back when the WWII memorial was officially opened one Memorial Day, I had ridden down to the Rolling Thunder event, then rode back out to the museum. WWII vets were all over DC and the museum. I saw a crowd of people by this bomber engine and got close enough to hear. A vet was there with his daughter. He had been a mechanic for this engine in WWII. He didn't know it was there until he saw it and became really animated. He was telling the crowd all about that engine, it's strengths and weaknesses. He said they leaked oil like crazy but were dependable. I was standing by his daughter and she was dumbfounded. She had never seen him like this and had never known what he did. People were fascinated and the crowd grew and grew. It was the coolest thing.

 

[Number_35]

The Air & Space museum at Dulles AP has a WWII big bomber engine on display. Can't remember the aircraft it was on. Back when the WWII memorial was officially opened one Memorial Day, I had ridden down to the Rolling Thunder event, then rode back out to the museum. WWII vets were all over DC and the museum. I saw a crowd of people by this bomber engine and got close enough to hear. A vet was there with his daughter. He had been a mechanic for this engine in WWII. He didn't know it was there until he saw it and became really animated. He was telling the crowd all about that engine, it's strengths and weaknesses. He said they leaked oil like crazy but were dependable. I was standing by his daughter and she was dumbfounded. She had never seen him like this and had never known what he did. People were fascinated and the crowd grew and grew. It was the coolest thing.

We've had three B-17s visit that I can remember - 1995, 1996, and 2013. I talked to the crew chief at one, I think '96. He was wiping down the underside of the cowling of one of the engines. I asked him if they typically leaked oil. He replied "The only time a radial engine doesn't leak oil is when it's out of oil".

I also enjoyed seeing the Mynarski replica Lancaster, which visited here in '89. The four Rolls-Royce Merlins sounded good.

 

[Number_35]

This is Sentimental Journey, visiting here 10 years ago.

Arriving, August 12, 2013:

On display:

Departing, August 19th

Bonus - a vintage bus in the parking lot:

 

[2005jettatdi]

The first B-17 I got to see up close was Aluminum Overcast. I paid the money and took the ride. Totally worth it and I am a white knuckle flyer. I have seen Sentimental Journey and would ride in it too. Both are well maintained and it shows. I once took a walk through in the 909. I would never have taken a flight in that plane. When it crashed I knew right off it was poor maintenance.

 

[Dave P.]

My uncle Jim was a B-17 tail-gunner in WWII. He never talked about what he experienced. When he stepped out of that aircraft after his last mission, he never set foot in another plane ever again. I guess we might be able to read into that.

 

[97prizm]

I’ll bet a lot of Bittoggers have seen this plane based in Arizona. I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing the plane flying overhead. It and the B-25, Made in the Shade are touring the USA and a bit of Canada this summer. We are very appreciative and awed by the planes.

Here are a couple of screen shots.

View attachment 167269View attachment 167269View attachment 167270

A B-17 crashed 2022 It killed 13 people on board. From the report the Collings foundation had a history of issues with repairs. I'd love to go for a ride but the parts, resources, and repair manuals for these things are few and far between. Boeing just cranked them out during the war. They never expected them to still be flying in 2023. It's a bummer that most were scrapped after the war.

 

[Exhaustgases]

I'd want to spend a week doing a good preflight check before riding on it. Control cables etc, as well as wing attach points and control surface pivots would be what I'd look at the most. That one that crashed because of engine problems, just no excuse for that. It should fly fine with 2 engines. I bet Bob Hoover would have had no problems with it, he could probably done it with them all shut down.

 

[CanAmAndMore]

I would love a ride...getting to fly it would be even better.

 

[2005jettatdi]

A B-17 crashed 2022 It killed 13 people on board. From the report the Collings foundation had a history of issues with repairs. I'd love to go for a ride but the parts, resources, and repair manuals for these things are few and far between. Boeing just cranked them out during the war. They never expected them to still be flying in 2023. It's a bummer that most were scrapped after the war.

The 909 crashed on 10/02/19 with 13 people on board. Seven of them died in the crash. On 11/12/22 the Texas Raiders crashed at the Dallas Air Show after a mid air collision caused by another airplane. All five on board died.

Both airplanes were built by Vega Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as Boeing was by then concentrating on B-29s. All of the flying B-17s currently flying were never actively used in WWII as they were built right as the war ended. Vega Aircraft was a unit of Lockheed.

Interesting note, the original 909 survived the war and was scrapped right here in Kingman, along with about 5,000 other B-17s.