Phil Gets A Ride In A B-17 Flying Fortress For His 50th Birthday
My wife. She knows how to get me hot. She bought me a half hour flight in one of the 13 still-flying B-17 WW2 bombers. "9-0-9" is a Boeing B-17G owned and operated by The Collings Foundation which flies around the country, with its companion B-24 & B-25, selling rides and doing airshows. My Dad flew 23 missions in B-17's out of England in the 8th USAAF and was shot down on his first mission. He was one of ultimately 4 survivors out of a crew of 10. Click here to read his story and see the crash reports for Sleepy Time Gal (s/n 42-3388, 385th Bomb Group (Heavy), 550th Bomb Squad (Heavy) based at Great Ashfield, England). I grew up with his stories, his flight jacket and helmet, and his pictures. I made B-17 models and knew all the versions. But I never, ever, thought I'd be able to fly in one. Thanks, Carol. This flight took place in April 2005 at Long Beach Airport, CA. We were given a quick preflight briefing. When "909" returned from its previous flight (see 1st MPEG movie below) they loaded the 9 of us in. We flew with a pilot, co-pilot, and a crew chief. What an awesome experience. Something I will never forget. You just can't compare spending even HOURS in a static display with a half hour in the air. |
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In the radio room, where I sat for takeoff and landing, they had basic cushions for us to sit on and for behind our backs and simple seat belts. We had to be belted for takeoff and landing but were allowed to stand almost as soon as we were airborne. The tail gunners' compartment is off limits. The waist guns are original and loaded with belts of empty 50 cal. cartridges but do not move. The ball turret is off limits and apparently not functional. The top turret is not functional but you can stand in it and look out (I was unable to do so because I'm so tall and a bit on the wide side).
If you look at just one of these files, make that the MPEG movie (all MPEGs are many megabytes in size) called "Looking Out The Top". In the radio room of the B-17 there's a removable plexiglas window. In the earlier models there was a gun mounted in there for shooting at high enemy fighters. "9-0-9" has the window removed and, if you're tall enough, which some of us are, you can stick your head out the top... at 150mph. They warn you to REMOVE YOUR SUNGLASSES FIRST! I still get goose bumps looking at this shot where you are looking DOWN at the tail, the engines, and Los Angeles County. I was simply unable to turn around to face the wind so I didn't get a shot ahead.
More below.
 909TaxiesInToPickMeUp.MPG 27.2MB |
 B-1.JPG 298.2KB We don't know why there was a B-1 at Long Beach Airport. That may be the tail of a C-141 StarLifter behind it |
 B-24Liberator.JPG 216.5KB This plane tours the country with "909" |
 BallTurret.JPG 392.2KB The metal boxes on each side contain the ammo belts for each gun. |
 CockpitOf909.JPG 321.5KB |
 CockpitOf909InFlight2.JPG 355.9KB |
 CockpitOf909InFlight.JPG 350.0KB |
 CrawlSpaceToNose.JPG 233.9KB This is under the cockpit deck |
 InsideStarboardWing.JPG 337.1KB I believe the horizontal linkage you see to be for the flaps |
 Landing.MPG 7.9MB |
 LookingOutTheTop.MPG 12.5MB A short movie looking out the TOP of a B-17 IN FLIGHT |
 LookingUpIntoTopTurret.JPG 317.1KB |
 PortEnginesOverPacific.JPG 297.8KB |
 RadioGear2.png 789.2KB |
 RadioGear.png 1.1MB |
 TakeOffB-24.MPG 1.7MB |
 TheOld&TheNew.MPG 5.5MB Sort of a juxtaposition of the old and the new |
 TookDadsMedalsWithMe.JPG 329.9KB One of them remained behind |
 ViewFrom909CockpitInFlight.MPG 20.1MB |
 WaistOf909InFlight.MPG 11.0MB |
I barely made it across the bomb bay!. There is a walkway, the width of a human foot, from the aft to the front of the plane, over top of the bomb bay. (This picture is from another plane in 1999; sadly, I'm even bigger now) Holding it up, and ensuring that someone on the plank doesn't fall into the bomb bay, there are two pieces of aircraft aluminum, each as wide as the walkway is long, and connecting from either side of the walkway to the roof; they go up at maybe a 15 degree angle. I had to remove my jacket and suck in my gut to make it up to the cockpit!
The cockpit is a deck on which the pilots' chairs are set. Below the deck is a small crawl way to the nose where the navigator and bombardier sit.
I took with me on the flight my Dad's two medals that he received after the ditching. I don't know why; it was just a symbolic gesture; see picture above. Well, I was so moved by this experience, both Carol's loving gift (the ride costs hundreds of dollars) and having finally flown in an airplane that was an important part of my childhood, that I left one of Dad's medals, on the plane. The Collings Foundation folks were kind enough to make his medal part of the plane and it is still flying with "9-0-9". They did a great job and I honor their commitment to keeping these old planes flying, hopefully for generations. Ironically, 4 years later, my sister took a tour of this very same plane not knowing that she was within feet of her father's medal.
Additional Info
For those not terribly familiar with this stuff, the rotary, air-cooled engines themselves really just take up the first few feet of the "nacelles" that they are mounted on. The rest of these 4 nacelles, sticking out of the front of the wing, is mostly empty except for the superchargers which increase the airflow enabling high altitude operation.
For more on B-17's and the lives of the men who flew, crewed, and supported these planes, I know of 2 old movies to see. One is called "12 O'Clock High" (a way of saying that an enemy airplane is straight ahead and above) starring Gregory Peck. It spawned a popular TV series I watched with my Dad when I was a kind in the '60's. The other one, I saw just last night, is called "Command Decision" with Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, and Van Johnson.
The camera I use is a Sony DSC-F828 which is primarily a still camera, and does a good job of that. It also does MPEG movies but not so well. As you'll see, it takes a long time for it to respond to light changes. Also, the propellers are going much faster than they seem.
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Last Updated August 5, 2010 Please provide attribution if you use any of these pictures. They are Copyright 2005 Philip C. Wells but non-commercial use is granted. I used GraphicConverter 5.8.1 to create the web page of thumbnails