06 Feb The Liberty Belle

Liberty Belle historic B-17

The historic B-17 Liberty Belle (not to be confused with the Liberty Lady … the name of the B-17 in which Herman was the bombardier) will be flying in Atlanta this month!   This plane completed 64 combat missions before being salvaged on February 18, 1945.  Sold on June 25, 1947 as scrap to Esperado Mining Co., it then sold later that year to Pratt & Whitney for $2,700. Pratt & Whitney operated the B-17 from 1947 to 1967 as a heavily modified test plane.  It was donated in the late 1960’s to the Connecticut Aeronautical Historic Association in East Hartford. Unfortunately, it was heavily damaged in 1979 in a tornado.  The wreck was stored in the New England Air Museum from 1981 until 1987 before it underwent a 15-year restoration.

Boeing built a total of 6,981 B-17s in various models, and another 5,745 were built under a collaborative effort by Douglas and Lockheed (Vega).  Most of the World War II survivors were scrapped at the end of the war.   According to “Aero Vintage Books” there are currently only 12 operational B-17’s.

Exciting News!  I will be on the media flight on Monday, February 9th!  I’ll be able to move about the aircraft to the different combat crew positions and (hopefully!) sit in the bombardier seat to see what Herman experienced 64 years ago.

The Liberty Belle flights will be February 14-15  and February 21-22. Flight hours are 10 am to 5 pm each day at the Dekalb-Peachtree airport. If you live near Atlanta, you can find ticket information at www.libertyfoundation.org.   If you only want to observe, you can do that too.

Of all the Liberty Belle videos on YouTube, I liked this one best because it shows the inside of the plane in flight, in particular, the bombardier position.

Can’t wait ’til Monday!

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