Saw a Pretty Old Lady this weekend

[scarry scarney]

Was outside, doing chores, and I hear a distinctive rumble going overhead.






Sorry the crappy image, she had almost flown away before I could get my iPhone camera to snap a photo. A B17!!! What a glorious sight, wonderful noise.

[MaLar]

I've had this experience once some time ago. Worked as a carpenter when I was younger. We built some large fancy homes for people with more money than smarts. We where working on a bench over town and I heard that rumble you heard. Went to the window and looked out just in time to see a B17 rumble through the valley. At eye level no less. There was an air show in town and the B17 was a part of it. I'll never forget that sound or sight.

[Hardcast416taylor]

A friend of mine had an Uncle that was a waist gunner on a `17. He said that you never forget the sound of them and never quite forget the feeling of it quivering.Robert

[Blackwater]

Once you hear those huge engines roaring, you can never forget the sound. It's thrilling, rightly regarded! Thanks. What those planes and others like them did, with the men who flew them, will always be humbling and an example for every generation that follows. We are all so VERY much in their debt, and always will be!

[308Jeff]

We have a few B-17's around here, so I get to see those fairly often. Always a thrill though.

One of the greatest experiences of my life was seeing FiFi land at the Henderson airport in 2012.

I've been in love with the Superfortress since my grandma took me to see The Last Flight of Noah's Ark in 1980.

So thrilled that Doc is back in the air.

[Hawks Feather]

I saw this on a couple of years ago at the Goshen, IN Duesenberg Thunder Run. A few other can be found here: http://www.jerrylatta.biz/Duesenberg...er-Run-Planes/

[Texas by God]

My dad took me to a CAF air show outside Breckinridge, Texas around 1981. I got to crawl around in a B-17 and watch it take off & land. Corsairs;P51 Mustangs; Jap Zeros and many others. I will not forget it.
Best, Thomas.

[bob208]

many years ago I heard the piston sound with a whining. looked up and saw a f6f flying over. he was low.

[Thumbcocker]

Think about being on oxygen and wearing heated coveralls a long way from friendly territory with nothing between you and the flack and 20mm from the 109's but 1/8" of aluminum. The greatest generation.

[Snow ninja]

My wife's grandpa was a Ball Turret gunner in WWII. She's told me some of the stories he told her. Sadly, I never got to meet him as he died when we were dating in high school. She said we would've gotten along great.
He still had his dress uniform with his medals pinned to it hanging on his bedroom door until the day he died. Said that he was very proud of what he was able to do in the war.
He apparently got the Ball Turret spot because he was the smallest one in the crew.

[Multigunner]

Back in the 60's when taking flying lessons I saw a C-46 Curtiss Commando in full military trim pass by a few hundred feet above me. Kind of a Twilight Zone moment.

Oddest thing I've seen in the air was when walking near my home I heard what sounded like giant chainsaws and looked up to see what at first looked like a disk shaped object. Then the object tilted up and I saw I'd seen a Goodyear blimp nose down directly above me its engines screaming to right the craft. I couldn't have been even one hundred feet above me.
They got it righted but then the engines quit and it drifted away gaining altitude till it drifted out of sight many miles away. It looked to be streaming water or something as it drifted.

I later read of a Blimp crash a few years later in another state caused by a defect in their ballast system, the craft suddenly diving nose down into the ground. This blimp apparently suffered a similar failure but they corrected for it barely in time.

[fatelk]

I've been through a B17 several times, guided tour in a local museum, and each time am amazed at the guts those guys had. Interestingly the B17 they have here was in a James Bond movie.

I have a friend who is really into such things and has been up in them more than once. That would be an experience.

[gtrpickr]

Those old planes are awesome, love seeing them in the sky.

[Moonie]

Had an uncle that was a nose gunner on one in the South Pacific

[Duckiller]

Got $450.00 that you don't know what to do with? You can ride in a B-17 out of Long Beach Airport.. Saw the ad in today's paper. Anyone really interested let me know and I will find the ad.

[MaryB]

This is only 17 miles away so I frequently get to see them flying over my house. I know the pilot and he will make a pass out over the field as low as he can if you wave at him.

http://www.fagenfighterswwiimuseum.o.../aircraft.html

[broomhandle]

Hi Guys,

My boss was a German Tool & Die maker when I was a apprentice. He was in a Hitler Youth Anti Aircraft unit. He lived in a small town, but it had a aircraft assembly plant near by. They had not been bombed.
He talked about hearing a large wave of B-17's coming over the town, it took about a hour or more for all the aircraft to hit the area! He talked about the sky getting dark as the planes came over! The planes came back one more time weeks late. After that there was noting left to bomb! No bridge's, no docks on the river, no factory, no water works, no railroad station & switching area. Took out a large section of the town too!

His dad was in the army & set word to go west to his brothers house, with the warning to get away from the Russians at any cost. He did not see his dad until Nov of 1946 after he was released from clearing mines & war damage in Yugoslavia & Serbia.

broom

[David2011]

Over 20 years ago (hope the details aren't too wrong here) I was out on my boat with friends sailing on upper Galveston Bay one Saturday morning and heard that same rumble. Texas Raiders and Thunder Bird were based nearby so the sound and sighting of a B-17 was not unusual. When I looked up it was not one of the familiar restored aircraft. I had heard on the news she would be arriving. This one was in bare aluminum and was circling the San Jacinto Monument celebrating the end of her final leg of a flight from England to an airfield in southeast Houston. The thrill of seeing her knowing where she had been lately was incredible. Another of the grand battleships of the sky was home for a restoration. Unfortunately her name is long forgotten to me.

[JWT]

My son an I just visited the Kalamazoo Air Zoo a couple days ago.



Not bombers, but pretty awesome.



Then we went to the USS Silversides.

[10-x]

Historic A/C are a National treasure, fortunate to have been inside many at airshows in the 80s- 90s when wearing original WWII flight uniforms for displays. Never forget talking to the aircrews that flew them in WWII. " Fuddy Duddy" was one of the best and of course " Fi Fi" and the B-24 " All American".