History Memphis Belle restoration

One very sobering point of reflection is at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, England (USAAF Station 357) On the walkway to the American museum was/is a long row of tall, glass plaques honoring each American bomber that was downed and did not return. Each with a 10-11 man crew. Before the Allies had long range air support with the P-51, the attrition rate was somewhere near 75%. Unimaginable courage.
Go here http://www.americanairmuseum.com/ or here http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford/exhibitions for an amazing history lesson

 

Wonder if the Collings Nine O Nine would still get a good Geiger reading these days. Tough bird, been through three nuclear tests and crashed twice.

 

There's Diamond Lil too, just not a J model. Saw it come down on two wheels once at Deer Valley in Phoenix. One gear wouldn't come down or lock and they orbited for a good while to burn fuel and gently set her down right about sunset. Held that wing up till the last second and spun her in the dirt just off the runway. Crew strolled up cool and calm out of the dust towards the tower afterwards. Like a battle damage scene right out of a WWII flick.

 

We have the pleasure of observing a B-17 this weekend at our local airport in Bend,Oregon, it should draw quite a crowd, keeping in mind that so many gave so much for our freedom.

 

The B-17 - my favorite warbird!
My dad just missed the big one (joined the USAAF in the autumn of 1946) but managed to see action in Japan in the occupation; he was up on a hill and some guy on a fishing boat took potshots at him with a rifle. There was Communist agitation going on at the time - or maybe he was some sore loser trying to even the score?
Anyway, before that, he was in the Air Scouts (a long-forgotten adjunct of the Boy Scouts of America) and in June of '46 his troop in Paducah, KY decided to obtain a B-17 as a teaching aid. It turned into a bit of an adventure:

Photo from our family album:


I've been researching this plane's identity (serial number) for the last several years; from various details I've narrowed it down to one of six aircraft. It never went into battle, but served as a trainer at the flight school at Hobbs Army Airfield in New Mexico - where Jimmy Stewart learned to fly B-17s.

Once it was delivered to the little airport, sadly, it was soon forgotten and the local yokels stripped whatever they could unbolt (a fate common to many postwar display aircraft including the Memphis Belle); they even stole the main landing gear wheels. By 1950 it had become an eyesore, and the local scrappers broke it up and hauled it away.

If any H.A.M.B.ers from Paducah see this, check your old family albums - if you find any photos of it (especially showing the tail number) I'd love to see them.

 

I recall that the B-17 Yankee Lady was based at Willow Run Airport, Detroit, next to Jack Roush's (Roush- Fenway Racing) hanger.

 

Yes, she's a beautiful thing. I saw her up in Manistee, I happened to be driving back to fish camp and came the back road past the airport and saw all these cars parked along the road that paralleled the runway. We had to ask and they told us they were all waiting for the plane to come in and land, it was delayed by the wind. We joined the crowd and the airport guys would give us updates until they decided fukkit, wind or not they were coming on. When they arrived at Manistee they circled a couple times to gauge the crosswind and as they approached the pilot threw more power to the starboard engines, you could watch the crosswind shift it around, and they just powered right thru it. When he landed you'd have thought the space shuttle had landed, there wasn't a dry eye in the place.
We all got the grand tour of it, the only place I didn't go was the tailgunner' spot, they might've had a rope across the entrance or I chose not to go back because it really is a tiny spot to get back to.
For the next few days we'd see her touring the Manistee area giving rides, it was expensive and I was on vacation so money was budgeted. I think a tour in the bombadeers sear was about $450ish, they could only take a few people up at a time and that was why it cost so much. I've always regretted not ponying up for the ride of a lifetime.

 

One of the 17s was scheduled to be at our local airport a few years back, remember hearing about it on the news. I'd forgotten all about it, and then one day I was outside and I could hear up above this wonderful sound. I'd never heard one before but knew right away what it was, the only thing it could have been. 4 radial engines burbling is just ear candy!

 

Re-Watching the 1943 film, as we speak, on my lunch break. So hard to fathom 1,000 aircraft in the skies.
Some flying home with no tail left
These were truly the greatest generation
Give me a lump in my throat



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If you want a lump in the throat:

'Flight of the Old 666'

 

I announced fly-ins/airshows for +20 years, Yankee Lady used to come to the Sidney, OH show, been there a number of times, also she would go just down the road to Urbana, OH museum to view the B-17 being built there. I had a chance to fly in the Lady as a thank you for helping them out on their show, got bumped at the last minute by a paying visitor, just as well, I have been in a B-25, C-47 and got some stick time in an AT-6 through the years. Never get tired of seeing these aircraft.

 

That was a Kool Video!!

 

Those B 17's were some tough Planes, look at the damage on 666. I looked at some entries from my Dads Log again, got hit by Flack on the 22nd, Got 6 holes in her on the 26th, and 30 holes on the 28th. "Ground School all day. No mission today, Plane ain't fixed yet", on the 29th! It went back up again on the 2nd. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Something tells me that 1 of those 36 slugs would have done some kind of damage to the Electronics or Computers on a new Plane and it would not have made it back to Base, but that's just me!!

 

It's music to the ears, and the soul.

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Go here: http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft
Enter the serial number and see if anything comes up. There is a lot of info on Col. Stewart. also.

 

^^^ Way ahead of you there - got the documentation PDF from Dave Osborne which the site uses (and even it has some issues); problem is I don't know the complete serial and there are six possible aircraft that could be the one. The USAAF records don't have any further info after those planes were sent to Walnut Ridge for scrapping. I really need a photo to finally verify it.

 

In 2008 I had the opportunity to visit the USAF museum at Wright -Patt for disassembly of the YF-22 for it's transportation to Edwards for it's display restoration. Had some free time to look around. In the hangar bay next to my project was the Memphis Belle in a state of restoration. I didn't have a ton of time but I did get to take a couple of pics.

 

Holy crap, cool restoration behind the scenes pics!!
Truly amazed at all your wonderful posts
On a similar cool note...
SpaceX rocket sonic boom shook the whole building, this morning
Must get over there for next launch
JT

 

We went to Hawaii last January, visited Pearl Harbor, Ford Island and the Museum at Hickam Field. There is a B17 that was ditched in Burma, if I remember right, and sat in a swamp for over 40 years. It was taken apart and flown out in pieces then put back together at the Museum, it's in pretty sad shape but it's "Saved".

 

My Dad, who is 93, went to school for radial engine design/repair and I still have the first set of Craftsman wrenches he bought. He was drafted into the army and was trained in the anti-tank division.

When he got to France they handed him a rifle and told him to chase the Germans. He was only there several months when he was hit - there is much to tell but the short version is that he lost an arm. he's still here and telling the newer amputees that if he could survive all that he has been through and done, so can they.

Like so many others of their generation, the ones that returned went back to their lives and lived - they are truly amazing ....

 

Hope I don't get flamed for this, but as a retired A&P with all most 50 years in the game, I gotta throw this in. Last week was the 21st and final reunion for the F-86 Sabre Pilots Assoc. Due to age, attrition and all that. I was privileged and honored to be invited. Steve Hinton from Planes of Fame in Chino brought an F-86 E model over to Nellis. Painted in Korean War colors. I helped him turn it, and Monday morning he did 2 fly by's for the Association. Those guy's had tears in their eye's, and the ALL had their pictures taken and got to "Touchy-Feely" one last time. They came from every country that flew the Sabre. Hell of a deal.

 

I saw this and it reminded me of a radio announcement I heard the other day locally. The Lady Lacey, a B-17 that has been under restoration for years will be at the air show June 10th in Oregon. Lady Lacey is the name given to the Bomber that adorned the gas station of the same name in Milwaukie, OR for decades.
Read the story here http://www.b17alliance.com/lacey_story.html

Pretty cool!

 

Here's Swamp Ghost from the Pacific Aviation Museum at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. Rescued from a swamp as you see it.


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Wouldn't it be great to see the "Ghost" fly again!!

 

^^Looks like it did a belly landing, like the landing in the beginning of the pilot movie, "12 o'clock high".
When I was a kid, I loved watching the TV series. I liked the earlier episodes with Robert Lansing as the General.
Thanks for the log books, very interesting. The one log book had the payload weight of the bombs for each mission. Seems like 5000 lbs. was its max. When I was at the VA today to see a doctor, had me curious to compare that payload to the A-6E Intruder I worked on in the Navy. The little A-6, probably 1/3 the size of the B-17 (?) carried more of a payload, each pod could carry three 500 pounders and 2 pods for each wing - 6000 lbs. (probably could load 3 more bombs on the belly too!) But I know the B-17 can carry more bombs, like twenty 250 pounders, A-6 obviously could not. I was told the A-6 payload was 2nd to the B-52. Fascinating stuff. I never cared much for the A-6 much when I was in the Navy. Now I admire it, it was quite an aircraft.

 

We carried two configurations on the D model B-52 in Vietnam . Either a split load of 48 750 lb in the bomb bay and 24 500 lb on the wings or 84 500 lb in the bomb bay and 24 500 lb on the wings (12 on each wing). Either way when they were released, it felt like an express elevator going up when all that weight dissappeared suddenly! Quite a ride!

 

The trouble with that, you'd be replacing so much of it with new build, you would effectively be creating a 'new Swamp Ghost', and as one of the few surviving early model combat vet B-17's left........that would be a shame. There's enough late model flyers and restorations in progress to allow Swamp Ghost to be conserved/preserved as is. Its a miracle it ended up being saved, that's quite a story in itself!!!

 

Good point! RIP

 

^^^^^ I believe $5,000,000 is the number allocated to actually fully restore Swamp Ghost, to day of delivery restoration. If the funds appear, it will be most definitely happen. The hangar it's housed in, has a fully functional and era correct, completely operational aircraft repair facility. Is in use daily, with a host of aircraft restoration work ongoing.

 

The company I part time for had a facility in Ypsilanti just south of Willow Run. On a real good day they would be taking The Lady for a stroll at lunch time so I could stand in the parking lot and take in her magnificence as she flew over.

What a beautiful sight and sound.