Restored B-17 to Tour England
June 10, 2008
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. - Soft isn't a word often used to describe a B-17 bomber.
Hard metal dominates the interior of the World War II workhorse. Naked bolts jut from curved walls. A beam catwalk connects the radio operator's cabin to the cockpit. Spaces between the plane's floor plates reveal glimpses of ground racing by, thousands of feet below.
"The most impressive thing about the B-17 is the punishment it will take," said George Cahill, 82, of Bethel Park, after riding June 9 in the Liberty Belle, a restored B-17 at Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin.
It was his first time aboard a Flying Fortress in about 53 years.
Cahill served as a tail gunner and togglier -- an enlisted man who dropped bombs -- on 28 missions with the 390th Bomb Group that was based in Framlingham, England. He recalled the mission when German fire over France so damaged his plane that he and his crewmates flew home at an altitude of about 2,000 feet with only one engine.
"As the landing gear gripped the tarmac, the fourth engine died," Cahill said of his arrival at a U.S. air station in Wales.
"It's great to have vets come out and relate some of their stories," said Don Brooks, 58, founder of the Liberty Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Douglas, Ga., which maintains Liberty Belle.
Soon the B-17 will embark on the first and last mission of its kind since the end of World War II, said Scott Maher, the Liberty Foundation's director of operations.
Liberty Belle, which came off the assembly line on March 14, 1945, and never made it to the European theater because the war ended before it could get there, will travel the same route that thousands of other bombers took to get to England, Maher said.
The plane will take off from Bangor, Maine, on July 1 and make stops in Labrador, Canada; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Prestwick, Scotland, before arriving in Duxford, England, on July 4, Maher said. Liberty Belle begins its return flight to the United States on July 16, he said.
The plane will participate in flyovers of military bases and cemeteries and in an air show, Maher said. Foundation officials have talked to about eight B-17 veterans about making the trip, said John Shuttleworth, 36, who piloted the Liberty Belle yesterday.
"It'll be the last one due to the cost," Maher said of the $400,000 trip. For a plane, and a foundation, that survives solely on donations and flying fees, that's a lot of money, he said. Liberty Belle costs roughly $4,500 per flight hour to run.
"We spend about $1 million visiting about 50 cities (in the United States) a year," Maher said.
The flight to England is Brooks' brainchild.
"It was a long-term goal that I set for myself," said Brooks, whose father was a tail gunner in the 390th. Under Brooks' direction, the Liberty Foundation raised about $4.5 million to restore Liberty Belle. Its first post-restoration flight was in December 2004, Brooks said.
"I'm touched by the fact that our friends in England keep roadside memorials (for vets) and keep the World War II control towers operating as memorials," he said. "I want to fly the plane over to honor all veterans and the ones who lost their lives in England. It's a way of saying thanks."
"We think it means a lot to people to see how a B-17 operates and hear the four engines," Brooks said.
Those propeller engines are what drew Ray Englert, 74, of Whitehall, and his grandson, Bradley Englert, 10, of Indianapolis, to the airport yesterday.
"I was watering my lawn this morning and I heard the sound," Englert said. "I said, 'That sounds like a B-17.' It's a unique sound."
http://www.military.com/news/article/restored-b17-to-tour-england.html?ESRC=eb.nl
Provost
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States 1924-1929
