Ok, so, I wake up this morning to the thunderous sound of an a/c. A big a/c. A friend of mine, a Lt. Cmd calls me and asks if I saw the bird that woke me. He tells me to go out the the Des Moines Airport. Ok.
This is what I find.
A WWII B-17G flying Fortress. I was awe struck. So as the day progressed, I met the crew, got to see it fly a bunch. Talked to Vets who had flown them back in the day. Then, I get the offer.
Not the best shot of me, but I had to hunch over due to the cramped size of the nose.
Note- I am not really that big a guy, but the pic makes me look really bad. And my uniform got jacked up from standing in the open Nav area [the tail pic]. Last flight of the day, and hour long. With a bunch of the WWII Vets. I was in heaven.
Thanks guys. Yes, definetely a once in a lifetime experience. I got a bunch of camera phone pics and some video while in flight. I have one from the nose going over the landscape. I’ll see about uploading them.
Dude i saw it fly over my house in Des Moines, and was so excited i all most soiled my britch’s, not to mention i f-got my camera, unfortunatly work kept me away from the airport[BH]
You are one lucky fellow! That ride would be something to remember for a long time. Did you get a chance to move about while in flight and checked out the other crew positions?
Man!!!
Yes, off topic, but who cares?
And yes, way too cool!!! You’re a lucky boy…good on you for getting the opportunity to ride in a piece of history.
I’m sure you enjoyed it as much as I would have.
Thanks for sharing the pics, mate!
You lived my dream flying on Liberty Belle. She is painted in the markings of the 390th Bomb Group, 570 squadron, My dads old unit! My dad loaded bombs on the real Liberty Belle as he did on all the B-17’s in the 570th. I saw Liberty Belle for the first time at Oshkosh two years ago and had a chance to breifly talk to the owner who’s Dad was a tail gunner in the 570th. Some day I hope to save up the money so my Brothers and I can go for a ride in “Dad’s” plane. The Joker logo below is a scan of the Squadron patch for the 570th.
Yes, I was able to walk the plane. As soon as we were airborne, they gave us free reign. I went tail to nose. The only area we couldnt go was the ball turret, cause the gears kept jamming. The most nerve racking part was walking the catwalk in the bombbay.
The info on the aircraft can be found at http://www.libertyfoundation.org. Its not the original Liberty Belle. It was repainted to match. The owner;s Dad was the tail gunner on the Belle. The actual A/c I flew in, is one of the prototype testbeds for Pratt and Whitney. The cockpit was moved back 47in and the nose was replaced with a T-64 Turboprop engine [later used on the C-133 Cargomasters].
Here are the rest of the pics from today. I also put up the videos from the day.
I was at the Duxford air museum about four weeks ago, and marvelled at the size of a B17 ball turret. I think anyone over about 3 foot nothing would struggle to get into one of them!!!
