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Saw a B-17 Flying Fortress flying today.

That's one of those rare sights that you'll never forget! Years ago, we had a B-1 flying the pattern where I work. I guy in the parking lot asked me 'what is that plane', and I told him (it was a rariety, I haven't seen a B-1 at work before or since then). I had seen a B-1 flying earlier, using it's afterburners. I'll never forget that rare experience. It's similar to comparing a shuttle launch to a saturn V launch, there's just no comparison. It's all relative.
 
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I remember going to Marietta Georgia in the late '60s, & that was one of the places where they were building the C-5 Galaxys...THOSE are BIIIIIG planes ! They were flyin' 'em "Around the patch" at Lockheed-Marietta.
 
I had a chance to see the infamous Memphis Belle while it was displayed in Memphis, on Mud Island. What a shame. It had been stripped, vandalized and left exposed to the elements for years, a ghost of it's former self. Fortunately for the Belle, in 2005 it was moved to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, OH, where it remains under restoration.

Memphis-Belle-and-Crew-NMUSAF.jpg


Memphis-Belle_Linda-Morgan-and-Frie.jpg
 
Celt said:
Has anyone here ever had the chance to stroll thru one of these things?

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Yours truly worked with the beast for 6 yrs in Marietta, while we were making AMP and RERP upgrades.

Avionics Modernization Program (AMP)

Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP)
 
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I've hiked through a C-5A at the now discontinued O'Hare Airport static air show that used to be held every year. It was held at the old "Military side" of the airport and I saw some really cool planes there including the B-1B and F-117A when it had just been revealed. There were armed guards standing around the F-117 to keep people from getting too close. C-5As also visited the former Glenview Naval Air Station once in a while. I remember driving by the base and being shocked at how big the C-5A looked sitting on the tarmac.

The C-5A is impressively huge on the inside and you realize how big this plane is when you see high the cockpit is when you are inside the cargo area. We didn't get to see the cockpit though. Also, right after we left the B-1B display at O'Hare one year, they began let people climb up to the cockpit, but I missed that opportunity.
 
B-25s and 17s used to fly over my house for the Akron Airshow when I was a kid (early '80s). When they'd do their mock-attack with jets (Usually A-7s) they'd do their turn around right over my house. Awesome.

A B-17 visited the Goodyear/Akron airport one year and my dad and I went, and we talked with the pilot. He then remembered that he had a pair of flight-headphones from WWII, so we went home, got them, and gave them to the pilot, so he let us walk through it. Not a lot of room in there! I recently got to walk through an RAF Lancaster...that's even smaller! They didn't even have room for the pilot and copilot to sit beside each other. I'm not sure how it worked..where the right controls were, was the hole to climb down to the bombardier compartment. VERY CRAMPED.

The only warbird I've flown in, though, was one of the Korean War M.A.S.H. helicopters (Bell H-13). Nothing like sitting in a bubble in the sky. It's like strapping a helicopter blade to a lawn chair. My dad and I were at an airshow and he really wanted to do it, as he'd flown in them in the Army as a passenger.
 
I toured a B-17 at an air show in Manchester, NH probably 20 years ago. It was a WWII vintage plane show at Manchester Airport, a working commercial airport. I remember the best part of the show was when they were trying to clear the runway of all the P-51 Mustangs for a commercial jet to land but didn't quite get it cleared in time. So after having watched many vintage planes fly by at low altitude all afternoon the highlight of the show was seeing a 727 fly by about 100 ft off the ground then gun the engines and climb back up to circle around and give the guys more time to clear the runway. You should have heard the cheers for the 727!!:thmbsp:
 
Celt said:
Has anyone here ever had the chance to stroll thru one of these things?
(This was taken at the 2008 Air Show in Jacksonville, AR)
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Got to fly in one from NAS Cecil Field in JAX, FLA to Roosevelt Roads P.R. while in the Navy. For those that don't know; you fly facing the rear of the plane, yes that would be backwards, which makes for an interesting landing sensation.

Something I learned about the Memphis Belle was that it was once housed inside the same hanger I had my hydraulics training in while stationed at NAS Memphis (Millington) TN.

On another note... one of the best sightings of the CAF was watching a German Junker JU-52 being escorted by two P-51D Mustangs flying about 1000' feet off the deck over the Twin Cities, VERY COOL.
 
Heard some piston engine roar yesterday at about 1:30 but after running outside, I never saw anything. Then around 4:30 PM yesterday, a distinctive noise had me running into the backyard to see a B-24 Liberator very low (200-300'?) over my house on final approach to Chicago Executive Airport (formerly Palwaukee). No time for pics but I'm going to try to catch the display over the next couple of days at the Airport . It was the B-24 pictured in this link: (see http://www.palwaukee.org/nav/air/news/news.html).
 
If it was polished aluminum it was probably the “Yankee Lady” from the Yankee Air Force in Ypsilanti Mi. I have seen several of the flyable B-17s and the Yankee Lady is the only one in polished aluminum (the rest were in military green). They also have a flying B-25 and a C-47 (DC-3)
 
i spent most of my air force time around ov-10's and c-130s. but once we had a c-5 stop over that needed a section of soundproofing repaired in the cockpit so i got to go inside and look around. the airframes of those things don't look like they could hold the weight of a tank, but they can.
 
I'm sure seeing a B-17 flyover is very impressive. I saw a B-52 flyover at a Cincinnati Bengals game in Cincinnati last November. I've seen lots of flyovers at football games, and that sucker was HUGE and LOUD! To me it epitomized the superiority of American know how--especially when you consider how old the design is.

Don't get too carried away about the size of a C5A or C-17. I know they are very impressive, but a merchant ship can carry 1,000 times the amount of cargo one of those planes can.
 
Wonder how many B-17s,-24s, -25s, -29s are even still out there ? I'm not talking FLYABLE examples, I mean ALL of 'em ...Flyable examples are usually just maybe 1 or 2.
 
Robie said:
I've hiked through a C-5A at the now discontinued O'Hare Airport static air show that used to be held every year. It was held at the old "Military side" of the airport and I saw some really cool planes there including the B-1B and F-117A when it had just been revealed. There were armed guards standing around the F-117 to keep people from getting too close. C-5As also visited the former Glenview Naval Air Station once in a while. I remember driving by the base and being shocked at how big the C-5A looked sitting on the tarmac.

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I see them fly around now and then (I'm a few miles south of Dover) and it blows my mind that something that big can fly. quite a sight! they make a distinctive sound. sometimes they fly by in the middle of the night and I can practically feel it.
years ago one flow off the beach at Ocean City MD and freaked a bunch of people.
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The B-17 in my eyes is still Queen of the Sky.

They are not small on the inside, they are tiny. And nothing is padded or cushioned. Lose your awareness for a moment, and you're going to open yourself up on some metal.
 
Sandy G said:
Wonder how many B-17s,-24s, -25s, -29s are even still out there ? I'm not talking FLYABLE examples, I mean ALL of 'em ...Flyable examples are usually just maybe 1 or 2.
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Last I checked there were 12(?) flyable B17s, 2 Flyable B-24s (one had been converted to a transport and not quite "origional" yet), only one B-29 "FIFI", there are several B-25s still flying.
 
I got to rummage around "Fifi" one morning about 15 years ago when it she was up at Tri-Cities airport, preparing to leave, they'd had an airshow the previous day... What struck me was, the B-17 & 24 I'd been thru were definitely VERY OLD aircraft, but the -29 didn't seem anywhere near as old-But they were maybe 5 years apart in age...It was a subtle thing, nothing you could put yr finger on, but the Flying Fortress was like a machine from a different age. George is right, ALL of 'em were sized for 12-yr old kids...A fatass 6 footer like me was WAY outta his element in one...
 
Sandy G said:
I got to rummage around "Fifi" one morning about 15 years ago when it she was up at Tri-Cities airport, preparing to leave, they'd had an airshow the previous day... What struck me was, the B-17 & 24 I'd been thru were definitely VERY OLD aircraft, but the -29 didn't seem anywhere near as old-But they were maybe 5 years apart in age...It was a subtle thing, nothing you could put yr finger on, but the Flying Fortress was like a machine from a different age. George is right, ALL of 'em were sized for 12-yr old kids...A fatass 6 footer like me was WAY outta his element in one...
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The 17 was designed in 1935, the B-29 in 1942. That seven years saw a lot of technological advancement in the aviation industry.
 
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