B-29 & B-17: Up Close and Personal

[AKPilot]

Okay here I am up in Seattle, yet again for a quick trip, taking care of some long term business plans with internal customers. So it's been a emotionally charged day meeting with people and then having a woman's car roll into our rental car (she forgot to put the brake on and left the car in neutral). I typically don't adjust my body-rhythmns from central time, so I generally wake up around 3am pacific time.

So after shoring up our last customer (3 in one day), my coworker looks over at me and mentions that he thinks I could use a "lift up". So he takes me out of the conference room, down some stairs, and out into an very old hangar that's connected to this building we're in. It looks neglected and he mentions that it'll be torn down soon. But then he points to one side and mentions that I might like seeing these . . .

. . . a B-29 and a B-17 tucked away. No people. . . no ropes. . . and all the fixins (50 cals, open bomb doors, etc.) It's the B-17 they used in various movies such as Memphis Bell, etc!!! And the B-29 is being fully restored by volunteers (who aren't around). Again, no one around but him and I. There's even momento coffee cups available for $6 - on the honor system! Wholly-smokes!!!

Needless to say, my coworker had to drag me away after a while. Talk about a good ending to a long day!!!

 

[dwmzmm]

Cool!! There's a small airport near where I live that has a CAF chapter, and
back in 1996, they flew in a working, fully flyable B-17 and opened it for tours
for anyone who wanted to have a peek inside. My wife (who was then nearly
nine months pregnant with my son) and I were able to enter the lower hatch
near the nose and make our way from there all the way to the back of this
great aircraft. Something I'll never forget.

 

[mikeyd]

It's nice to see them still flying!

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[Trident]

I've crawled thru the Sentimental Journey when it was in Colorado maybe 12-13 years ago. I flew on the B-17 belonging to Collings Foundation in 1999 -- the "Nine-o-Nine".
What a thrill! Once in the air and leveled off, we were able to get up and move around, including sitting in the nose, and looking thru the bombsights (and pretending to bomb all the homes up along Horsetooth Reservoir). For $300, we got a 45 minute flight. And if you paid $500, you could fly it from the copilot seat for maybe 10 minutes. Two guys did it on my flight, and I kick myself now for not paying to do the same. They do not allow that any longer. I think flights for the past few years have been $400, and will probably continue to go up.

It comes to Fort Collins/Loveland airport every 4th of July with a B-24, and a B-25. This past year they brought a P-51 Mustang, but those rides were over a $1000, as I recall.

Google "Collings Foundation" to check the schedule. They probably will not be flying these with paying passengers for too many more years, so jump on the chance if you can.

 

[Pantherjon]

That is awesome Troy! I got the rare privilege to be 'up close and personal' with the "Real McCoy' Enola Gay plane a few years ago! Was in the right place at the right time waiting on my trailer to be ready at FedEx in Memphis..Was a thrill..Sent shivers down my back thinking of the history that plane made..

 

[dwmzmm]

Not absolutely sure, but I think the B-17 my wife and I toured was named
"Texas Raiders."

 

[Pem Tech]

You lucky dog....
Did you get to "rack" one of the .50's, make machinegun noises and pretent to shoot down German fighters?

Pictures?

 

[mjennings]

I got to see the Aluminum Overcast (along with many other things) up close and personal at Airventure in 2003. Didn't have the cash flow to pay for a ride in that or the tri-motor that year.

 

[Larry]

Those big old bombers are neat close up and in the air. I was fortunate enough years ago to see a British Lancaster, and B-24 Liberator at OshKosh Very Cool!! I was also fortunate enough to attend an airshow in Champagne Ill. where the CAF had about everything that would fly there. We got to walk up and under FIFI the only flying B-29! It was awesome on the ground, and totally awesome in the air!! My son did flight line marshalling while he was in the Ciil Air Patrol and helped a B-17 taxi out, lucky bugger got to stand right there while they started engines, they all got a free tour of it as well!

One regret I have is never forking out the money to ride in a P-51 Its now pretty much out of reach at over a thousand dollars.

Larry

 

[peter_stanley]

I don't really know my planes, but I think I saw a B-17 at an air show in western North Carolina a few years ago. Here some pics I took. It was awesome.

Peter

 

[mach7]

Yup, Thats the B-17.

Nice photos.

Troy, I'm jealous you lucky dog.

 

[judo]

I was just finishing up a day of installation work back during my car wash days. This wash was right in the landing pattern for one of the runways at Craig Municipal Airport. GSA take-offs and landings are quite regular; I'd been hearing and watching them all day. Then there was a very different sound. It was a P-51D on approach. Some guy here in town owns it. It was a beautiful sight!

 

[sandman]

About 23 years ago I was at my local grass runway airport for one of my early flight lessons. Now this airport is 80 miles north of Detroit and basically out in the counntry and "in the middle of nowhere".

I was doing my preflight walk around when my instructor says to me in a low voice as if it was no big deal, "Wait a second there's a B-25 flying over."

I kinda heard him but in a questioning responce said, "Excuse me?..."

Just then my question was interupted by the roar of two 18 cylinder radial engines suddenly screaming about 50' over the hanger and right over my head with it's bomb bay doors open!

As it pulled away the bomb bay doors closed and my instructor says, "OK, where were we?".

The owner of the B-25 was a friend of my instructor.

Way cool!

 

[CharlaineC]

the b-17 is one of my most loved aircraft. she is beautiful and is just impressive. it was a shame that they retired her.

 

[dwmzmm]

I got a chance to tour the B-17 and the B-24 from the Collings Foundation when they flew into the Worcester, MA airport quite a few years back.

I still have the souvenier T-shirt that I bought that day. Too bad it still doesn't fit.

A few years ago, I was out in my yard when I heard a loud roar of multiple engines and looked up to see a B-17 flying directly overhead at not too great a height. What a thrill! It must have been heading for a tour stop somewhere in eastern MA because that's the direction it was heading.

At later airshow/open house the CAF had at the West Houston Airport (near my house), they've also had a B-25 (among others) on display, and me and
my son had a chance to climb inside and look around. I had "no trouble"
crawling through the small tunnel connecting the nose/front gunner's position
to the cockpit area (although I have to admit I thought I was gonna get
stuck at some point ). Some years later, while driving through the streets of east Katy, I heard an unusual roar of a propeller aircraft approaching over head and was pleasantly surprised to see the B-17 at maybe a few hundred feet altitude. Just like what you see in those war movies. Also once caught the B-25 flying overhead my house at a low altitude; those twin engines have an unusual roar to it, too. Seeing these
two historic aircraft's in flight, I can see what a thrill it must have been to
see these in the air all the time back in "those days."

 

[Sailorbill]

Several years ago we had a B-17 stop in my hometown and offer rides. The folks that went up on the last flight really got value for their dollars. At the end of the flight the crew could not get the gear down! They flew on to Sioux City, IA (SUX) airport where they belly landed. Every body walked away.
The Sioux City airport was already famous for another less than nominal aircraft landing.

 

[Fred22]

Troy Iam glad you had that opportunity to tour those great aircraft John just the idea of being on the same continent as the enola gay is thought provoking. I have never flown in an old warbird and come to think of it i am not much on flying period but I like airplanes Go figure In nanton Alberta there is a small aviation museum with a Lancaster in it. The cockpit was not accessible at the time but you could tour the rear fuselage area up to the bomb bay and walk around the aircraft all day. My Uncle Bill flew 82 missions as a tail gunner on a halifax which is a similar aircraft so the whole experiance was really cool Heres a link
https://www.lancastermuseum.ca/
Cheers
fred

 

[dwmzmm]

Troy Iam glad you had that opportunity to tour those great aircraft John just the idea of being on the same continent as the enola gay is thought provoking. I have never flown in an old warbird and come to think of it i am not much on flying period but I like airplanes Go figure In nanton Alberta there is a small aviation museum with a Lancaster in it. The cockpit was not accessible at the time but you could tour the rear fuselage area up to the bomb bay and walk around the aircraft all day. My Uncle Bill flew 82 missions as a tail gunner on a halifax which is a similar aircraft so the whole experiance was really cool Heres a link
https://www.lancastermuseum.ca/
Cheers
fred

My late uncle flew as a tail gunner of a B-29 during WW-II.

 

[Fred22]

My late uncle flew as a tail gunner of a B-29 during WW-II.

The odds of survival for a full tour were 25 percent in Bomber Command. I am still awestruck by the courage of these men wether they had stars or roundels on the wings
Cheers
fred

 

[mjennings]

I think he few in a B-25, but my great uncle was lost in the pacific theater. I'll have to ask my grandfather if he knows, (he was pretty young at the time).

It's amazing how much damage those planes could take and still fly home. I've seen photos of B-17's with 1/2 the plane gone at the waist gunner ports, or 1/2 the horizontal stab gone, and much more. Air and space did a great photo article on it several years ago.

 

[Trident]

You lucky dog....
Did you get to "rack" one of the .50's, make machinegun noises and pretent to shoot down German fighters?

Pictures?

As I recall, they did not have the .50s hung from the side "windows", but I would have grabbed them and spun around, to take out those pesky Messerschmitts. I mostly hung out up in the cockpit area, so I could listen to the pilot, as well as climb up in the nose. The really upsetting part was that I did not have my camera! In the picture below they did have guns on either side of the nose.

We went out to look late the first day, and my wife convinced me (!) to fly with her brother. We decided on it, and bought tix for the next morning. They had a cancellation, and we went that afternoon, but I almost said no, since I had forgotten my camera. I did take some picture a few years ago of the plane on the ground, but sure would have loved to film that trip. Another vivid memory I have is sticking my head up thru a rectangular hatch on the top, near the upper gun turret. I put my head out into the wind as we roared along probably close to 200mph. Luckily, no bugs in the teeth at that height.



I think the B-17 is one of the greatest looking planes ever made. And I love the look of the tail dragger gear, unlike the B-24, which is a trike.