B17G at Creve Couer, Missouri Airport this past summer.

[Sherman A1]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/oxarw6][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/oxarw6]

[Crewleader]

1. Nice photo and Congrats on 14,000 posts my friend!

[Sherman A1]

2. Thank You Kindly

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. What a beauty!

[Adsos Letter]

4. My wife's uncle flew one of those.

Walked with a cane the rest of his life after losing a chunk of his leg to flak over Germany.

[Major Nikon]

5. Not many of these left flying

One was based very near me at the Fort Worth Meacham airport for many years and I got a ride on it once. The plane has since been sold and moved away.

[Tom Kitten]

6. Oh man, she's a beaut!

There are fewer than 50 left in the whole world! It's a treat to see one in flying condition!

Reminds me of my junior year of high school...one day, in history class, our principal was a guest speaker and he told us of his experiences as a navigator of a B-17 and flying missions over Germany. A short, bald, jovial man...nobody had any idea. Plus he was 18 at the time! When I think back to when I was that age, well it's almost incomprehensible to imagine myself doing that.

Also, not far from where I grew up, there was "The Bomber" gas station and restaurant, a local landmark because it had a B-17G mounted on its roof! It had been there for over 60 years. In fact, just last week I went by there to take some pictures, Sadly, 60 years of being outside in the elements has taken its toll. But a preservation group is making an effort to restore it to flying condition, they estimate it will cost over 4 million dollars! I wanted to photograph it before it's gone...

Here is a photo of a postcard I found at a second hand store of it in it's prime



Here it is just last week



Anyways thanks for memories and it's kind of serendipitous we'd take pictures of the same subject so close together!

[Sherman A1]

7. Excellent!

Photos of the Bomber. Yes, it is being restored as I understand. If you are on FB there is a B-17 group or two that posts pics daily of various planes. It's worth checking into.
I was lucky this year as 3 of the restored ones came to the area and I got to see two of them.

The one in the photo is 909 which was traveling with a B-24 (that is where the photo was taken) and a PB-51. Early I got to see the Movie Memphis Belle and did see Aluminum Overcast fly overhead.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ofEEHK][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/ofEEHK]

[groundloop]

8. I was lucky enough to get to fly a B-17 a few years ago

I have about 20 minutes of B-17 (Aluminum Overcast) time in my logbook, geez that thing was a beast to maneuver. The thing I remember most is how much muscle it took on the rudders compared to the light planes I was used to. It was extremely stable, put it on a heading and it stayed there (which I suppose is why it was so good at what it did). I can't even begin to imagine trying to fly that thing in combat like those kids did in WW II.