Bravo 17

[Boz330]

Was shooting a silly wet match Saturday and all of a sudden we hear this rumbling engine sound (radial) and a few seconds later a B-17 Bomber flys overhead. This one was polished aluminum so might have been the one the EAA rebuilt named Aluminum Overcast. This one was pretty loud and we were remarking on what it must have sounded like when hundreds of these things flew over during WWII. If you were on the other side it probably sounded like the end of the world.
Apparently it was at Lunken Airport giving rides because it went by several more times during the match. One of the guys was booked to take a ride in a
Ford Trimotor, I think in conjunction with the same air show.

Bob

[schutzen]

I wish I had known one was that close. I would have loaded Dad and His Great-Grandchildren in a van and we would have visited. Dad (85 yr) was a crew chief/top turret gunner. I have pictures of him and his grandchildren in Sentimental Journey. Now he has great-grandchildren and I would like to get pictures of him with the GGC. I may sound silly, but it is one way for another generation to remember the "Greatest Generation" and their sacrifices to redeem "Peace in our time".

[Boz330]

I wish I had known one was that close. I would have loaded Dad and His Great-Grandchildren in a van and we would have visited. Dad (85 yr) was a crew chief/top turret gunner. I have pictures of him and his grandchildren in Sentimental Journey. Now he has great-grandchildren and I would like to get pictures of him with the GGC. I may sound silly, but it is one way for another generation to remember the "Greatest Generation" and their sacrifices to redeem "Peace in our time".

Absolutely, I don't think the education system does near as good a job as they should in that respect.
My buddy's daughter works for the VA and one of her patients was a Tuskeegee Airman and she has been astounded at some of his stories. There was book written about him and one of his white classmates from Cincinnati who was a bomber pilot and he gave a signed copy to her. The two of them had never seen each other since high school but ran into each other 50 years after the war and it turned out the Tuskeegee group had flown top cover for his bomber group and saved there butts several times. They have been fast friends since.
Did you know that there is an Air Museum in Lexington and occasionally they have the Bombers in there? If I hear anything I'll post it up here. You might also check the EAA website for their schedule. They had a B-17 just across the river from Louisville last year.

Bob

[Swagerman]

I was a witness to history around 1939 or 40 by a fly over of the early type B-17, they were the ones that didn't have the WW-2 emphinage on its tail rudder...and no tail gunner station.

Was just a tiny little runt on an Oklahoma oil field company home...no running water or electricity. Heard this rumbling racket outside and it was coming from the sky and pretty low level at that. Ran outside to see this historic squadron of gleaming aluminum B-17's flying formation over head.

It was that early model that they did the extremely long range flight to prove its worth as a flying fortruss...believe they had been all the way down to South America and back.

I remember calling for my mother to come outside, but she got there too late as the group had passed on over.

Jim

[Boerrancher]

One of the guys was booked to take a ride in a
Ford Trimotor, I think in conjunction with the same air show.

Bob

Wow, a Ford Trimotor. I didn't think there was any of those left flying. If I remember correctly there was only like 30 of them made or some really low number, and only 4 or 5 left. I thought that the only ones left were in Air Museums. I am not a big aircraft person but to just see one of those old trimotors fly, much less get to ride in one....

Thanks for the brief day dream and Best wishes,

Joe

[Boz330]

Not sure how many there were originally but not many left flying. When the weather is good a try to fly up to Cincy for the silly wet matches and there was a trimotor at that airport giving rides. Seems like the thing only rolled about 25 ft before it was airborne. Didn't fly very fast either. A real piece of history.

Bob