B17G Flying Fortress

We had a B17G Flying Fortress at our local airport (Wheeling/Ohio Co, WV) this week. Saw it land and taxi after a flight with some folks who put up the cash for a ride. Its the Sentimental Journey with the Commerative Air Force.

I flew on one a few years ago...best money I ever spent.

I got to ride in the Collins Foundation's B-17 "Nine-o-nine." It was well worth $425. The pics and video are on my other laptop back in KC. If you ever have the cash to blow, do it. You won't be sorry!

There is no sweeter sound then those big radials at full song. Got to climb in one years ago. Really gives you a reality check of what the men endured that flew these aircraft.

If you are old enough to remember the TV series "12 O'clock High" you can appreciate what the members of the 8th Army Air Force went through during WWII.
It was actually safer to be an infantry soldier that a crewman on a B-17.
On my flight I met a gent that had been a waist gunner in one during the war.....he was an awesome old guy.
The Collins Foundation keeps these planes flying to honor the memory of those vets.
I hope I get another chance to fly with them.

It is amazing to sit in the nose and look back at the engines. The planes are a work of art.

Same plane was here a few years ago and a friend of ours tried to get his father to go see it because he was on bomber crews in WWII. He never talked much about it before and politely said he had no desire to see this one because he lost too many friends in them.

I also had a neighbor where I grew up who lost a brother serving as bomber crewmember. He said his brother is still listed MIA. No one knows what happened to their plane. They just never made it back across the channel was all the letter said.

The next time I make it to an airshow and one is there I'm definately going to pay for the ride. These planes won't be around forever.

"He said his brother is still listed MIA." sometime even after 60 years we can find some remains like this British pilot whom they found in his plane cokpit in North of France when he went down in 1942......and they found him in 2001.(the plane and the pilot were buried 3 feet under.
this never stop to amaze me

i was watching a special on the b-17... they said it got down to -40 degrees when they were at altitude. ive been in a b-17 and i couldnt imagine being in there in the cold with all of the coats and cold weather gear on too. im so jealous! i would love to go up in that bird!

My uncle was a tail gunner in one, I never got to meet him thought. Dad told me a story that he(uncle) was in one that got shot down and some how the tail got cut/shot off and my uncle was the only who made it.?

One of my parents friends who grew up in holland said the squadrons of bombers went over their house at night on the way to bomb germany she told me the sound of them flying is something she never forgot.Last summer a B17 was flying around the area for a few days when the air show was near this woman now in her eighties stood up and was looking for it before we heard it and recounted the stories of them flying over their house in the dutch countryside during WWII.

Our local area had a fleet of three old war birds a few weeks ago. A B-17, B-24 and a P51. Unfortunately it was raining much of the time, so I didn't take the family out to see them.

My father in law was a pilot on the B-17 called "Floosy Flossy". He was shot down and spent a large amount of time in a Luft Stalag. Somewhere around the house is a book about the "Kreigies" (I think I spelled it correctly), how they lived and just plain survived. After the war he got called up to be a cargo pilot on C-54s for Korea. Fantastic guy. One of my brother in laws got interested in flying B-17s and flew one that was operated out of upstate NY. Can't remember it's name off the top of my head but we got a short ride on the ground (they were towing it into the hangar). B-17s and Hueys...best birds in the sky (IMHO).