Cool video of B17 flying out of Renton, Wa over the Cascades
- Thread starter Panman
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FredandJeannesRacer
Well-known member
WOW! Awesome vid. How much for the front bubble seat?
juniorfjr
Well-known member
saw that on the news the other night, way cool. Loved some of the still pics too.
Uncle Hud
Just another blob of protoplasm using up your oxyg
Couple of bubble-framed gunner seats available on that beauty. Thanks, Panman!
Gary F
Well-known member
Took a ride in a B-17 in Phoenix a few years ago. $450 got you a seat and a chance to roam around in the plane once it was off the ground. Not a cheap or long ride but unforgettable. We were on the first flight of the day and got to do the check out walk around with the crew. The flight gave you a great appreciation for the crews that flew these planes into war.
wetwolf
Well-known member
HA! It landed here at Felts Field. Which is about a mile from where i work. Pretty short runway, and when the big ones take off, they have to fly over my work as they cant take off the other way due to taller buildings.
Ponied up the $$$ for a ride in the Collings Foundation's Nine-O-Nine a few years ago out in San Diego. That was a bucket list item! Awesome experience. There was a 16-year-old kid on that flight who heard his grandfather's stories about being a crew member on a B-17 during WWII. He learned all he could about that war and was taking the ride to experience a little of what his Grandfather did. I was very impressed with that young man!
Now if I can just save enough pennies for a ride in a P-51...
Now if I can just save enough pennies for a ride in a P-51...
Panman
Well-known member
I've only been inside one, pretty humbling to think of what those men went thru!
Being a old retired Boeing guy I have been part of a few cool things. As a tool maker I got involved with helping on a few little things on the 247D that after restoration on a test flight they ditched in Elliot Bay.
One time My wife and young at the time son were down at the Museum of flight down in the big Shity and the B-17 Memphis Belle was sitting out in the lot before they started the restoration. A couple of dudes came out and fired her up! At first they just idled the engines and they and then they slightly ran up all four, they then got them all idling and the ran up the two outboard motors full clock and slow those down and ran the two Inbrd's up, it was awesome as the old hart was a pounding.
A few years later up north where we live is the Arlington airport (an old military airport) and they were having some kind of event and had both a B-17 and a B-29 there and we just happened to be driving by and noticed the planes and I cranked the wheel to go see. Just so happened they were giving those big money rides, we were right next to them when they started walking the motors thru to fire them So we stayed and watched the whole deal, start-up, taxi and take-off. What a deal, when they taxied by and turned out to the taxi-way the sand-blasting you got was just to cool, even my Missy didn't complain to much. Watching them lumber into the air was also cool, they took a lot of the runway and were not even carrying a load!
Still blows me away how a radial engine works or even stays together.
Being a old retired Boeing guy I have been part of a few cool things. As a tool maker I got involved with helping on a few little things on the 247D that after restoration on a test flight they ditched in Elliot Bay.
One time My wife and young at the time son were down at the Museum of flight down in the big Shity and the B-17 Memphis Belle was sitting out in the lot before they started the restoration. A couple of dudes came out and fired her up! At first they just idled the engines and they and then they slightly ran up all four, they then got them all idling and the ran up the two outboard motors full clock and slow those down and ran the two Inbrd's up, it was awesome as the old hart was a pounding.
A few years later up north where we live is the Arlington airport (an old military airport) and they were having some kind of event and had both a B-17 and a B-29 there and we just happened to be driving by and noticed the planes and I cranked the wheel to go see. Just so happened they were giving those big money rides, we were right next to them when they started walking the motors thru to fire them So we stayed and watched the whole deal, start-up, taxi and take-off. What a deal, when they taxied by and turned out to the taxi-way the sand-blasting you got was just to cool, even my Missy didn't complain to much. Watching them lumber into the air was also cool, they took a lot of the runway and were not even carrying a load!
Still blows me away how a radial engine works or even stays together.
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Bugnatr
Well-known member
Ditto, my son and I took a flight in a B17 a year ago out of Sacramento. Absolutely one of the coolest things I have ever done.
Sitting at the end of the runway feeling the throb of 4 radials while it was warming up was almost a religious experience. Screw the money, if you get a chance to go up do it!!!
Got fly on Fifi, the last flying B-29, a while back with my neighbor who worked on restoring T Square 54 here in Seattle. I sat in the navigators seat and guess who signed the map i sat behind. Dutch Van Kirk, the navigator of the Enola Gay. What history behind these birds.
Check out the video i took from that seat. That's Terrence my neighbor up front in the bombers seat.
Check out the video i took from that seat. That's Terrence my neighbor up front in the bombers seat.
marcusorelius
Well-known member
Here's a vid of the B17-G that was here a year ago....
BigOgre
Well-known member
Often I've tried to imagine what it must have been like living in Europe during war-time and seeing . . . and hearing . . . and feeling, dozens and dozens of these flying in formation over your village.
Bugnatr
Well-known member
Dozens?
"During World War II, its predecessor unit, the 487th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was an Eighth Air Force heavy bombardment unit in England, stationed at RAF Lavenham. It flew 185 combat missions, the last being on 21 April 1945.
It led the largest Eighth Air Force mission of the war on 24 December 1944. The object of the attacks, in which 1,400 bombers took part, escorted by 726 fighters, was to bomb eleven German airfields east of the Rhine while another 634 heavy bombers attacked communication centers west of the Rhine."
Mind boggling to say the least.
I don't know if it was the same raid or not, but I saw a documentary or something that said the formation took about 30 minutes to pass over a single point on the ground.
Northwoods Snowman
Well-known member
It's hard to truly comprehend the history behind these old war birds and the things the crews experienced in them.
garyahouse
newbs need the forum
This is an amazing story: Normally, Dad worked in ordinance: he loaded and "armed" bombs before each flight. But dad got his chance to fly perhaps 6 combat missions when they scabbed together a crew for a B17. Dad was the tail gunner during all but one of those missions. But on that fateful mission, the man who normally manned the turret gun under the belly of the plane asked Dad if they could switch places, explaining that he was feeling sick. Dad agreed and for that one mission he was spinning around in the ball turret. However, it was that day that the rear end of the plane was shot up and that other fella was killed in action. Dad lived to tell that story and I've often wondered if I'd even be here if that switch hadn't taken place.
About 15 years ago, I took dad and his best friend Doc up to the Brooksville airport to see a B17 and a B29 that had flown in. What an experience it was for him to see and hear the old war bird again. Dad's been gone now for 8 years, but Doc is in his early 90's and still tells of being a 16 year old cook on board a military transport ship in the navy working out of Pearl Harbor starting just after the bombing. Recently he was describing the scene when he arrived in Pearl for the first time. He said the harbor was still full of oil.
About 15 years ago, I took dad and his best friend Doc up to the Brooksville airport to see a B17 and a B29 that had flown in. What an experience it was for him to see and hear the old war bird again. Dad's been gone now for 8 years, but Doc is in his early 90's and still tells of being a 16 year old cook on board a military transport ship in the navy working out of Pearl Harbor starting just after the bombing. Recently he was describing the scene when he arrived in Pearl for the first time. He said the harbor was still full of oil.
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Great video. Aluminum Overcast and the movie Memphis Belle were at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's WWII weekend in June. You could fly in Aluminum Overcast if you had the scratch. Fifi and Doc were also there, with flights in Fifi available.
garyahouse
newbs need the forum
Just remembered another one of Dad's war stories. He said that most of the time, they did their bombing runs at night. During his off-duty time, he was busy learning Italian and would some times spend his "off" days riding around in taxis. On one occasion, they took a taxi into an area they'd just bombed, and he got to see a ground level view of what they'd just done the night before. He said that he felt bad knowing that those bombs were killing people and not just destroying factories. They tried to drop them accurately because each one was precious; precious because they cost American lives to deliver. Many B-17s never came back from those night raids. And of course they didn't want to cause unnecessary civilian deaths when bombs missed their targets. And so it was that when dad viewed the incredible damage that these bombs caused, he noticed also the collateral damage: the civilian injuries and deaths that they caused. He said that he didn't do this very often, it was just too hard to take.
Little did he know that when the war was over, he'd meet an Italian girl from Boston whose parents had come over from Italy just a decade or two before the war. Turns out that the time dad spent learning Italian was a big hit with mom's father, who spoke very little english. After dating her for a few weeks, the old man asked dad, "So when you marry my daughter?" Dad replied that he had no home and no money. But to his surprise the old Italian said in broken english: "No worry, I feex, I feex." He did indeed help out with the wedding and the rest as they say is history.
Little did he know that when the war was over, he'd meet an Italian girl from Boston whose parents had come over from Italy just a decade or two before the war. Turns out that the time dad spent learning Italian was a big hit with mom's father, who spoke very little english. After dating her for a few weeks, the old man asked dad, "So when you marry my daughter?" Dad replied that he had no home and no money. But to his surprise the old Italian said in broken english: "No worry, I feex, I feex." He did indeed help out with the wedding and the rest as they say is history.
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garyahouse
newbs need the forum
As I said, dad told a number of war stories. This month would have been mom and dad's 73rd anniversary and they lived to celebrate it. Dad's nick name was "Lucky" as he had a knack for winning everybody else's money during World War 2; much of which he sent home to mom to put in the bank. I don't know how he did it, but the name stuck to him because he was very consistent at being, WELL, lucky. I guess a lot of guys lost big to his luck and...
...his nick name was not a compliment.
To the day he died, he was known as "Uncle Lucky" to dozens of relatives. I got so used to hearing it, I almost forgot what his real name was. Just after dad was promoted to sergeant, they reviewed his paperwork and found out he'd skipped one of the lines at the recruiting center. Ya see, dad's birth certificate said he was a Canadian citizen. Apparently he was born in a Canadian hospital while his family left Detroit on a brief vacation. Being poor, they never corrected it, and dad managed to skip the line (to verify his birth certificate) during induction.
Well, it caught up with him.
They allowed him to stay in the US Army air corps, but he lost his stripes. After the war, when newly married mom and dad returned to Detroit, the authorities caught up with him there and deported him to Canada. So there was mom with no money, no job, no friends and the remnants of dad's family in Detroit that didn't like the big mouth from Boston (her words, honest). It took awhile for him to swim through the red tape and get back home again. The marriage struggled in those early days due to things like that and all the drinking dad was doing. I'm thankful mom held on believing that vows actually meant something.
By the time I was old enough to remember...
...he'd mended his ways and turned out to be a great dad to me. He's been gone now for nearly nine years. Writing stuff like this helps me cope, so thanks for putting up with my rambling...
...his nick name was not a compliment.
To the day he died, he was known as "Uncle Lucky" to dozens of relatives. I got so used to hearing it, I almost forgot what his real name was. Just after dad was promoted to sergeant, they reviewed his paperwork and found out he'd skipped one of the lines at the recruiting center. Ya see, dad's birth certificate said he was a Canadian citizen. Apparently he was born in a Canadian hospital while his family left Detroit on a brief vacation. Being poor, they never corrected it, and dad managed to skip the line (to verify his birth certificate) during induction.
Well, it caught up with him.
They allowed him to stay in the US Army air corps, but he lost his stripes. After the war, when newly married mom and dad returned to Detroit, the authorities caught up with him there and deported him to Canada. So there was mom with no money, no job, no friends and the remnants of dad's family in Detroit that didn't like the big mouth from Boston (her words, honest). It took awhile for him to swim through the red tape and get back home again. The marriage struggled in those early days due to things like that and all the drinking dad was doing. I'm thankful mom held on believing that vows actually meant something.
By the time I was old enough to remember...
...he'd mended his ways and turned out to be a great dad to me. He's been gone now for nearly nine years. Writing stuff like this helps me cope, so thanks for putting up with my rambling...
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