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F16CrewChief — Flying Fortress Nose Art
Published: 2010-06-26 00:16:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 1704; Favourites: 36; Downloads: 51
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Description
Collings Foundation B-17 nose art seen at Tacoma Narrows Airport WA.Related content
Comments: 28
Jeezus! This is fantastic! The real Nine-0-Nine was a Fort from the 323rd Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group, based at RAF Station Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire. She was named after the last three digits of her serial number - 42-31909. She completed 140 missions with the 8th Air Force and survived the war. The original, well-worn Nine-O-Nine's fate was a Stateside scrappers yard - at Kingman, Arizona, I believe. She was rendered down to make aluminum pots and pans, window frames and other post-war items for peacetime civilian consumption. Thank God there are folks that restore Fortresses with a REAL eye to and a sense of history!!!! Absolutely, positively Sweeeeeeeeeet!
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I am not sure if you saw the overall shot here [link] Thanks for the history!
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I did... *sigh* As I said Absolutely, positively sweeeeeeeeeeet!
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The original acft did. This acft just carries the markings.
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i got stuck trying to get through the bomb bay of that magnificent plane...
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It is amazing at how small the WWII "Heavies" really were!
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In actuality, the Fort was designed as a long-range medium bomber. One that could defend the coasts of the United States. Who would have ever thought that it would ascend to the role of the most important and prolific bomber of World War Two. She was beautiful too...
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I still have a fondness for B-24s and the 'useless' B-32!
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Yessir. Although the B-24 was a handful to fly, it was a great airplane in its own right. One of the problematic issues was the use of the Davis high lift airfoil - it was great as far as supporting a heavy duty payload went, but it did have some weird stall characteristics. And those big fins and rudders definitely sucked in a crosswind! I like the B-32 Dominator too... it was built as a back-up in case the B-29 was a failure - the prototype B-32 was pressurized, had twin fins and rudders and retractable, remotely controlled turrets (like on the later B-36). All that went away though, and the production B-32 was definitely more conventional, much like the B-24. What most people don't know is that small numbers of the Dominator were used operationally in the Pacific, but only for a couple of weeks before the end of the war.
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Yeah. Supposedly, the last mission of the war was a B-32 mission.
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OOOH yeah....i had to go out and climb in through the aft hatch.
standing under the open bottom hatch of their B-25, my chin was level with the floor.
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Just like how the B-25 is around the same size as the A-10
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I was surprised to find out that my F-16 could actually carry the same bomb tonnage as a B-17!
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Nice shot. I got to walk through "Sentimental Journey" back in 1999. These are seriously cramped ass airplanes.
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I got to fly on that B-17 in 2004. My FBO sponsored a flight out to Luke AFB from Mesa AZ. I knew the pilot since he used to be my squadron commander about 10 years back, so he allowed me to fly from Luke to Glendale airport (5 miles away). It was a short flight, but it was fun!
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decorated......
they shot down three nazi planes!!!
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Great B-17, maybe it could turn that nose turret and shoot up the BP sign.
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I have had the privelage of seeing one of these in flight and landing at an airshow here in VA. She was just passing through, and heard the airshow radio traffic and decided to show off the aircraft for a short time. She was gorgeous. Was happy to see one flying. We also had two P-51's, an ME-109(never seen one of those before), a P-47, and of course the easiest WWII planes to see, T-38 trainers(think thats the correct designation).
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