A B-17 came to visit

[Rusty]

As I was getting ready for work yesterday I heard the roar of the engines but didn't go out to look. One of the local lady radio personalities was taking a ride on a B-17 that was visiting Lakeland Linder Airport. Here are some pictures she took of the event.
http://www.970wfla.com/onair/am-tampa-b ... -13383021/

[wolfdog]

Pretty cool! One of these days I would like to see one up close, my father was a ball turret gunner on one.

[J Miller]

wolfdog,

Next time any one of them is in your area make the time to go see it. The newest of them is nearly 70s years old so who knows how long they'll be flying.

I've seen and crawled around in the Sentimental Journey a couple times, seen the 909 and photographed them both. I'm too fat now to pass through the bomb bay so my physical visits are limited. But to see, hear and touch one is a thrill.

It's amazing to me that we sent men to war in those machines and many of them came back.

Joe

[M. M. Wright]

Last year I lost an old friend who was a waist gunner on a B-17. I knew he had been a POW and had a purple heart but when I asked how many missions he had flown he said "one and a half". He was shot down over Germany. He said he was in a prison camp in northern Germany and they started moving them south on foot with a lot of guards around them. After a couple of weeks nearly all the guards had just disappeared and he and a buddy picked up a K-98 and some ammo and went stag hunting. Didn't shoot anything but they went hunting anyway. He was a neat guy and only about 19 at the time.

[slimster]

Thanks for this, Rusty. Brings back memories of climbing around in the old "Memphis Belle" as a kid. I've always loved the fuselage art on the WW II bombers, and the ol' B-17 was a HECK of a plane!

[MrMurphy]

See my post on here about flying in a B-17. Lot of pics and video for you.

[plowboy 45]

Rusty, I wonder what the odds are, this past wen. one just like it flew over Purvis just after dinner
Didn't think to video it with my phone
Heard it coming a perty good ways
You happen to know where it flew in from





PLOWBOY

[plowboy 45]

Well, just told my wife about the plane
She said it was in Hattiesburg or coming to Hattiesburg
Bet its the same one

[hayabusa]

My Father In Law went thru the tail gunner training for B-17 and before he shipped out the war ended.

hayabusa

[KWK]

The Collings Foundation tours the country each year, usually with a B-17, B-24, and P-51. Tours and rides are available at each stop. The list for the first half of the year can be found here.

The EAA's B-17 also tours, and its schedule is here. Their plane is not as complete as the Collings example.

The Commemorative Air Force B-17s also visit many airshows each year. ("Commemorative" is the politically correct replacement for the original "Confederate.")

Collings visits the Chicago area each year. The main runway's threshold at Chicago Executive is right by the road on the north side. When the wind is favorable, you can park nearby and have a magnificent view of a B-17 and B-24 passing directly over your head less than 100 ft up -- recommended.

[John in MS]

Pretty cool! One of these days I would like to see one up close, my father was a ball turret gunner on one.

You OWE it to yourself to fly in one of these while you still can!! After being a WW2 warbird fan
since 1969, I finally had the money when a plane was here. I went for a flight on the Memphis Belle
(the one from the movie, not the actual M.B.). and it was fantastic!!! An experience of a lifetime!!
Absolutely NOT like any other plane I've flown in, to include prop-driven military transports.

I've known a lot of former POWs, many of whom were B17 aircrew who were shot down. It was wonderful to get
to experience some of the things they had, so long ago. I talked a young Soldier I work with into going with me --
offered to pay $100 of his fare, but he wouldn't let me. He was reluctant to spend the money, but called his Dad
and several older friends, and all unanimously said "DO IT!!"

He had a huge grin on his face the whole time we were in the plane.
A couple of weeks afterwards, I asked him if he thought it was worth the price, and he
gave a very emphatic "YES!!"

There are only 12 or 13 flying B17's left, and the day will come when they won't risk flying whatever remains;
then your chance will be gone. If my Dad (a WW2 vet) had been a B17 aircrewman, I'd sell a rifle or whatever
it took to get to fly on one. Hope this helps,
John

[firefuzz]

About 22 years ago I took my first tour of a B17 at the big air show in OKC. I don't remember for sure, think I paid $15 for me and $10 a piece for my two kids and a friend's son that was with us to get to basically crawl all thru the bird. My first wife was an aircraft mech at Tinker working on the B1-B and a real tight wad at the time. (She and new hubby just paid more for a car than we paid for the house that we bought, they live in, and I paid for) She raised cain about me spending the money saying she could, and did, get a tours thru the B1 for free. Told her that without those wonderful planes and the brave crews that flew them the B1 might not have ever existed.

Rob

[Rusty]

I don't know where this one was headed after leaving Lakeland. These pictures were taken by Cory, lady on the local radio station.

I know in Polk City there is a museum, called the Fantasy of Flight. when you first enter to go through a B-17. I was amazed at how small and cramped they are. The men that flew those things certainly deserve all the credit they get for what they did.

If you want to get an idea of what they went through read the book "The Flyboys" by Stephen Ambrose.

[Canuck Bob]

I once crawled through a Lancaster when i was a kid in Windsor. Also visited an American diesel sub on the Detroit river. It was almost 50 years ago but still fresh in memory.

Doesn't Lakeland have a connection with the EAA?

[jd45]

If you're anywhere near Oshkosh, WI at the end of July, that's when the air show is held. Saw several there a few years ago. Don't know if they offer rides in them but I did see some in the air during it, maybe it's a possibility. What I'd REALLY like to see up close is a B-29 Superfort, but I don't know if there any flyable ones left. There were none at the show. jd45

[Rusty]

I once crawled through a Lancaster when i was a kid in Windsor. Also visited an American diesel sub on the Detroit river. It was almost 50 years ago but still fresh in memory.

Doesn't Lakeland have a connection with the EAA?

Yes Bob, there is an EAA museum in Lakeland. My company rented it out this year to hold their annual driver's award banquet as a mater of fact. They also have the Sun n Fun Fly in in Lakeland every year.
http://www.sun-n-fun.org/FlyIn/EventAct ... rshow.aspx

WOW! That's next weekend.

[Gaucho Gringo]

When I worked in a door factory in the 1970-80's, there were a lot of WWII along with a few Korean and Vietnam vets working in the place. The Memorial Day poppy sales were a big deal and almost no one refused to buy one. My donation in the early days was $10.00 which was over double my hourly wage at the time. Later as my wages went up, my donation increased. I figured I owed these guys double, once for fighting for my freedoms and another for fighting for the wage and benefits I enjoyed as a union member. Today I receive a small pension for the over 14 years of working there. It was actually due to the problems of the Studebaker pension plan after the factory closing and the new laws enacted because of it that I receive my pension today. There was gentleman who I worked with in the door factory for about 3 years on our machine crew(5 people) that had been a belly gunner on a B-17. He was just barely 5 feet tall and was in his late 50's, but he was as tough as nails. Everybody respected him and all the other WWII vets. The other workers always said in hushed tones to new employees that he had been a belly gunner. I asked him a couple of times about what it was like, but his reply was "you don't want to know" even after I had told him my dad was a Marine who joined the day after Pearl Harbor and was in the first wave invading the Salomon Islands, contracting malaria and jungle rot and having narrowly missed being sent to Iwo Jima. He had the same reluctance to say anything about the war that my dad and his friends did. We still owe them our thanks even today.

[cshold]