Large Scale Central

What's that noise?

General Discussion
#1

My family was enjoying a leisurely breakfast late Sunday morning when off in the distance I heard this very deep rumble. Almost like an large approaching helicopter, but much deeper and less choppy. I looked around the table and asked What’s That? as the rumble grew to a roar. And then I remembered…

[color=blue] B -17 !!![/color]

I jumped up from the table and ran (bad knee and all) out the front door and into the street, just in time to see and hear this magnificent war bird roar overhead at 2000 Feet (we are at 460’ ASL).

There was no time for pictures, but I did catch it on the ground a few day’s earlier during it’s visit to the Danbury Airport. This is one of only 14 air-worthy B-17s in existence today. Owned by the Liberty Foundation and named after the famous Liberty Belle, this plane never saw combat. It sat at the New England Air Museum for many years after being donated by Pratt & Whitney who had used it as an engine test bed for 20 years. t was damaged in 1979 by a rare New England tornado. In 1990 a 14 year $3.5 Million restoration project was begun to return the Flying Fortress to the air.

For full info: http://www.libertyfoundation.org/index.php

This is the second time I’ve had a B-17 fly over my home. The last was 8-10 years ago when the Collings Foundation visited Danbury with two WW-II bombers.

Jon

#2

I had the pleasure of watching those brave lads joining up in formation for their raids in the Continent . Bless them .
They formed up en masse to fly home at the end of the war , and Britain became more quiet for a while .
But I shall never forget those formations of B17’s climbing and forming up sparkling in the morning sunshine .
They had some brightly coloured ones as form up ships for the others to formate on . The ground used to tremble and we used to wave to them. I doubt they saw us from 12,000 feet , but a lot of little boys will carry the memory to the grave .
Mike M

#3

Jon you are right it is a magnificent war bird. My wife and I had the pleasure of watching this beautiful aircraft fly over Cape Cod for a three or four day’s a few weeks back. My wife was able to take a few distant pictures.

Ron

#4

They are quite a sight! I was fortunate enough to attend a local airshow here and witnessed a B-17 fire up it’s 4 big engines and taxi out to the runway for a warbird flyby…what a thrill!!

#5

I would love to take one of those rides ! I sat in one at Oshkosh 30 yrs ago. My Dad was a B-17G pilot, 52 missions, I still have his logbooks. They tracked down one of his planes in Central America that had been hauling cattle. Thanks Jon for the video link.

#6

One of my neighbors here at the Boonville, CA airport hosts a hangar party every year. Lots of (free) airplane rides for the public, especially the kids, along with antique and homebuilt aircraft with folks flying in from all over. The latest party was two weeks ago on Saturday, August 12. We had a flyby of two P51s along with a visit by a T34 and another neighbor’s L6 hoping passengers all day. All were in full military paint.

A significant part of the festivities is recognizing and honoring all veterans, and especially those who served in the air corps. Part of this recognition is induction of select folks into membership in the OFFA. Any guesses as to the meaning of OFFA?

There are always several B17, B24 & B29 pilots and crewmen in attendance. Ross Murray is one of our local friends, who is now 88 years old, and was an instructor pilot in B17s for the duration of WWII. Ross can tell the stories with the best and I really believe he could get in one and fly it today!

Heros All!!

Happy RRing,

Jerry Bowers

#7

Want to try it in scale? This looks to be somewhere between the 7/8 and the 1:20.3 crowd…

http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/8754/Unbelievable_model_B_29.html

Ok, so that’s a B-29 and not a B-17, but still…

Oh, and Jon … the visit 8-10 years ago … do you remember which two planes those were? I thought one was a B-17, but what was the other? They did a flyover at Hammonasset, where I was working as an EMT at the time … and did touch-and-go’s (or at least a low field pass… I know they were below treetop level, and seemed to be inches above the runway) at Griswold Airport, which has a runway that’s barely long enough for a small Cessna!

#8

It’s not the B-17. I have that pic stored somewnere, but it shows a Mitchell in a fly by…

#9

Matthew - Cool video. Even at scale, 4 engines sound great! The visit I recall was the Collings Foundation, they were traveling with B-17 “Nine-O-Nine”

and B-24J Liberator “All-American” at the time.

It looks like the B-24 has now been re-painted as “Witchcraft” The Collings foundation website is: http://www.collingsfoundation.org/menu.htm They came to Danbury at least twice, maybe 3 times. I remember my 15 year old was in a stroller then and I took video with a huge VHS cam-corder. Don’t know the year exactly. Ken - What is the 2 engine job in the first picture? Similar outline to the B-17, but with a tail like the B-24. Jon

#10

B-25

#11

Back in 1962, I spent a summer as a high school summer hire with the forestry service, in those days they used a couple of B17’s in my area as part of the white pine blisterust eradication program. They used to fly around dropping rolls of toilet tissue from the B17’s to mark areas of high concentrations of Goose Berry bushes that were host to the spores that were causing the disease that was wiping out the white pine trees in the eastern US.

My job for part of the summer, flying in a B17 and handing rolls of toilet tissue to the forestry serice experts that could see the Goose Berry bushes from about 200 feet. We did bominbg runs on the bushes.

For that they paid me $1.00 an hour. We did this every clear day Tuesday through Friday, with the planes being down for maint on the three days they were not flown. The aircraft were operated by a contractor and contract pilots all of whom had flown the B17’s in combat. Most still had the same leather flight jackts that they wore during WWII. Had the forestry service known how much fun this was, they may have charged me to do it.

I am sorry that I did not make a note of the tail numbers of these birds and I have often wondered if they are still flying today.

One week both the 17’s were down for maintence and they brought in a B26 and a Catalina when the Forestry Crew that I was flying with heard that my dad had been a Cat pilot during WWII in both theaters they opted for the Cat, for a whole week I was 10 feet tall and thought I was the coolest 16 year old alive. Even though it was not allowed the Cat crew let me into the cocpit while they were flying. In those days I only got to see my Dad about 6 weeks a year and when he came in in the fall I had four weeks of stories to tell, and to his credit he sat through all of them and just smiled as I think he was reliving some of his past exploits.

Last year at the first big Air Show in this area in some time they had a B17 here and were charging an arm and a leg to ride in it. My wife was encouraging me to go out and do it, and I told her that I would rather put that money in my granddaughters education fund as I did not think that paying that much would keep the fun in the ride. Later in life after my active military service I had the privilage of knowing BG J. K. McGloglin, who was the founder of the WV Air National Guard, and who happend to be one of the lead Pilots in the raid on the Swinefurt Ball Bearing plants in Germany. He was quite a fellow to work with even in his 70’s he was on sharp dude.

Ron

#12

Ron, I had a similiar experience in the summer of 1965. I was working as a gofer at Pangborn Field in Wenatchee, WA, when they brought in a couple of B-17G’s to act as borate bombers on a huge fire in what would soon become the North Cascades National Park. Very rugged country. I manged to put myself in a position to fuel the plane, wash the windows, and so on, making myself as useful as possible. One of the pilots asked me if I’d like to go on a mission. Duh! I rode in the Nav/Bombradier station on several of the bombing runs over the fire. Absolutely fantastic! And I was getting paid to do this, too! We flew so low that I think we flew through the flames on several occasions.

My father’s cousin was a radio operator in the B-17’s. He was on the flight of B-17’s that flew into Hawaii during the raid on Pearl Harbor. That was the only story about his exploits in Big 2 that I could coax out of him. In 1940, my Dad had a summer job painting B-17’s at Boeing Field in Renton, WA, while he was going to college. He says that there was 300 pounds of paint on each B-17.

In my not so humble opinion, the B-17 is the most beautiful airplane that ever flew. Others will disagree, but the designers at Boeing got it right on that one.

madwolf

#13

I’m not old enough for those memories :smiley:

Several years ago the church had a picknic for the whole town of 550 people. Free hot dogs, soda, games for the kids and such. There was a little girl there who was a little “slow” and scarecely spoke. She liked tossing the bean bags into the buckets, so long after the other kids were involved in a game, she was tossing bean bags into the buckets. This was fine with me, if she was having fun, I’d keep fetching them for her. After like 45 minutes, she said, “airplane.” I felt rather priveledged to hear her speak.

BBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWW!

This giant millitary 4 engine monster flew over about 50 ft agl and people were diving for cover!

When she does speak, you better pay attention.

#14

had a similar fly by once, walking around, out and a bout, heard the deep roar, looked up to see right over me a low flying B-17, and on his wing a B-24!

I later saw on the news that they were flying into Van Nuys airport for an air show and were doing photo flyovers.

But my favorite flyover was the bright yellow, just restored, Northrup N-9 flying wing, which did flyovers for the Rose Bowl one year, WOW was that an amazing site to see.

We live nearby the Rose Bowl, and get to see the flyovers most years.

#15

I was working this year down in FLA in Delray Beach when the Collins Foundation had 909 ,Witchcraft ,and the B25 at the Boco Raton airport I scraped together the $450.00 for the 30min flight. It was well worth it, for me and knowing that my money helps educate those that may not know about these wonders of 65 years ago that help save a world at war.

Jon Ill be down at the Danbury Tank museum on sept 9 doing a 1/6 scale WW2 diorama stop by and check it, out sounds like you are nearby. Don should have several 1/6 tanks and lots of GI And German figures these are Gi Joe sized figures

#16

I took these two at at the big airshow at the Willow Run airport near Detroit a few weeks ago, They are of the Yankee Air Museum’s Yankee Lady.

More shots from the show can be found here http://www.computech-online.net/~garyb/tom06/odtom06.HTM

#17
Don Raver said:
[i][/i] Jon Ill be down at the Danbury Tank museum on sept 9 doing a 1/6 scale WW2 diorama stop by and check it, out sounds like you are nearby. Don should have several 1/6 tanks and lots of GI And German figures these are Gi Joe sized figures
Thanks Don. I live in New Fairfield and work in Danbury. Been to the military museum once several years ago. I should be just about back to walking normally by then; having arthroscopic knee surgery tomorrow. I'll get there if i can.

Jon

#18
Quote:
Ken - What is the 2 engine job in the first picture? Similar outline to the B-17, but with a tail like the B-24.
What Andre said.

B-25 Mitchell…

#19

For you Air Show junkies…I had the opportunity to attend the 50th Anniversary celebration air show of the Air Force in 1997.

The closing fly-by took over an hour and started with the fighters. The bombers were next from WW I to the present. Every flying bomber was there. That means from WW I Jenny that the pilot dropped bombs from the cockpit…B-17, B-24 B-25 B-29 and finally to the B-1 that broke into afterburners in front of the crowd and as he started the climb out … a very low, slow and stealthy fly-by of the B-2

The utlitmate Air Show.

I’m still trying to locate the DVD of that afertnoon

President Clinton didn’t appear at this celebration for fear there were too many WW II veterans attending who would have booed him.

#20

I still do…

Andre’