The Experimental Aviation Association is sponsoring the nationwide tour of "Fuddy Duddy", a B-17G from the WWII Pacific theater. Took a flight today from Hayward up to Treasure Island and back - what a trip! It may be coming to an airport near you - check out: http://www.b17.org.

Head on!

adada

View of Treasure Island/Bay Bridge and SF from co-pilot's seat.

another survivor of WWII - a Russian YAK-9U which I believe has been somewhat modified!

Cool the CAF had a b17 and a couple of other war birds flying out of love field a couple of weeks ago. If they could only get that sound out of a jet. Nothing beats the old radials for a nice sound

Wow! What a rush! That's a once in a life time experience! You must be stoked!

Awesome man! Warbirds are a blast to ride in!

Sure is a beautiful plane... the Euros are grounding the big ones, if you want a chance to ride, better get it soon!


M

My dad was a crew chief on a B-17 during WWII. He was 21 years old and responsible for the maintance of a bomber.

Paul

That rocks!


M

I worked on (helped restore) "Shoo Shoo Baby", the B-17G that is now in the AF museum at Wright-Pat in OH. Wish I'd gotten the chance to get a ride, though.

Yesterday, my attorney and I saw the Vickers Vimy (WW I biplane bomber) flying around near Hamilton Airfield in the North SF Bay. He almost flew over us--too bad we were in her 911 so we couldn't look up at the as it went over! Sounded great, too. And, of course, she forgot to put a CD into her camera so we didn't get any pictures!

--DD

Look familar?

M

Is that a 50 cal. in the turret ? It makes air to air missles so impersonal today !
I do miss the old air shows at El Toro MCAS, saw lots of these oldies there. The B17 cruises into Van Nuys airfield every now and then...it sounds very menacing over L.A.

I saw the plane go by from a distance on the Penninsula and thought it was a Lancaster...nice ride.

QUOTE (Maltese Falcon @ May 15 2005, 07:02 PM)

Is that a 50 cal. in the turret ? It makes air to air missles so impersonal today !

Yep, believe it or not, when operational, the B-17 had twelve, I say again TWELVE 50cal machine guns. It was definitely called the "Super Fortress" for a reason. Two of the twelve guns were on the "waist", two in the tail, two in a revolving belly turret, two above and behind the cockpit, two in a "chin" turret below the bombardier and one on either side of the bombardier. Riding in the bombardier position way out in front with that great view was a blast!

I found out today that each gun only had enough ammo for a continuous one minute of firing, but I think that would be sufficient. Also found out that the total crew was 10 in number and the max crew weight was 1200lbs total; goes to prove that there were few few big guys in the B-17; especially the belly turret gunner.

I have also heard that the expression "The whole nine yards" came from the B-17 crew; i.e. "I gave that Messerschmitt the whole nine yards" meaning one belt of ammo was nine yards long.

Wow, Thats an awesome Ride , The sound of those radial engines is a treat in its self,
I got to ride in a Goodyear Blimp, It was Great for sight seeing.

We saw you fly by a couple of time at the AX on Sat. We were down at Alamda.

-Britain

I saw the plane fly by all day on Sunday. I was watching my step daughters track meet. Every time the plane flew by the PA guy would tell us to wave. I have some great pictures as it went by. Had to be a great time for you.

Awesome...my grandfather was a bombardier, navigator, and front gunner on one of those...he has some wild stories...always says he had the best seat in the war. He said just firing one of those 50 cals shook the whole ship, can't imagine if you had several of them going off at one time.

I would love to catch a ride in one of those, thanks for the pics!

Tony

QUOTE (carreraguy @ May 15 2005, 05:09 PM)

another survivor of WWII - a Russian YAK-9U which I believe has been somewhat modified!

You could call it a P-51 "Rusk-ang".

-Ben M.

M

I love Cali. I was at the junk yard last week. It is by Brown field municipal air field by the boarder. I heard something and looked up to see a B17 flying low in formation with a Dauntless dive bomber, a hellcat, and one that I didn't recognize right away but kinda looked like another hell cat in British trim. How freaking luck am I

I love vintage aircraft. I think in another life I was a WWII pilot.

Looks like fun.



Is there a bathroom on that thing?

There was a B17 AND the only remaining B24 here last week. As much as I would have liked to go for a ride, the bucks to do so were MAJOR and I'm only The Cap'n. I AM jealous, big time. Closest I've been is inan AC 119, a truly scary airplane, though a wee bit newer. C47s prolly don't count, as there's a ton of them still around ........................

wow!!! too cool!!

a few weeks, ago a B-17 and a and a B-25 barn stormed into town. rides in the B-17 were $350 for 30 min., wish i could have gone but couldn't afford it. got to climb through it though. i've got a lot of reverence for those planes, a lot of brave men died in those things.

my dad was a P-47 pilot and a flight instructer and has many flight hours in both the B-17 and the B-25, love hearing his stories.

BTW, there is a big air show at planes of fame in chino this weekend. wish i could go.

Dad did 28 missions in one of those...

On his last mission, he lost 3 of the engines..

Said it flys OK on one, but you constantly lose altitude.

KEn

Hey, I seen that plane today down at the airport as I was driving by. It had just
landed. I heard that they were giving rides for $395. I'm going over right now in fact to show the kids.

The Spruce Goose was a way cool plane to check out ...when it was parked here in the LBC. Howard Hughes & co. were way out there when they built that goliath !

QUOTE (carreraguy @ May 15 2005, 08:49 PM)

[QUOTE It was definitely called the "Super Fortress" for a reason.

Actually, it was called the "Flying Fortress". The B29 and it's successor, the B50 were called the "Super Fortress"....... Doesn't make it any less impressive, though ................................ The Cap'n

QUOTE (Cap'n Krusty @ May 16 2005, 04:13 PM)

QUOTE (carreraguy @ May 15 2005, 08:49 PM) [QUOTE It was definitely called the "Super Fortress" for a reason. Actually, it was called the "Flying Fortress". The B29 and it's successor, the B50 were called the "Super Fortress"....... Doesn't make it any less impressive, though ................................ The Cap'n

Cap'n you are totally correct; brain fart on my part and you are right it is still quite an aircraft. I was really surprised by how "small" it was but it sure packed a punch. That truly was the "Greatest Generation" when you think of the sacrifices made to the tune of over 60,000 B-17 aircrew killed in the European campaign.

One of the guides mentioned that the B-24 was every bit as important as the B-17 but most of the reporters at the time preferred to write up the B-17's (i.e. Memphis Belle") out of London as opposed to covering the B-24 in Italy or Africa where there was a lot more hostile action. All that being said, I would highly recommend anyone interested in the B-17 to check out "Memphis Belle" from your local video store as it was a very factual production. Another outstanding movie of that era was "Twelve O'Clock High" with Gregory Peck.

BTW - thanks for the tee shirt; my son and I enjoyed the short visit to your shop on the way to WCC '05.

Yeah...saw the write up here in the local paper and saw it flying along the coast line....great rumble. If I recall, it was a model that was built late in WWII, used a as armed transport for bigwigs and never saw action. Was restored to war trim and now flies as a museum exhibit.....

QUOTE ("Z" @ May 16 2005, 05:13 PM)

Yeah...saw the write up here in the local paper and saw it flying along the coast line....great rumble. If I recall, it was a model that was built late in WWII, used a as armed transport for bigwigs and never saw action. Was restored to war trim and now flies as a museum exhibit.....

Yep, the one I flew in ("Fuddy Duddy") was used in the Pacific theater and they mentioned it had both Eisenhower and McArthur as passengers. Its likely in the condition it is considering it was relatively new and not used on many (if any) bombing missions. Regardless, it was still a thrill!

I understand that the collins foundation B-17 and B-24 will be having $400 half hour flights my area, sounds like the $350 ride was a deal!!!

Correction on the B-24 it is not the last one (they made more of them than B-17's) I believe it is the last flying B-24, there are other B-24 but only on display) there are a handful of flying B-17 left. But that won't be forever, so fly them while you can. Thousands became beer cans after the war. Many that are left are still here cause they were used as fire water bombers after the war. They had use in war, defeating the bad guys, and in peace fighting fires.

There are some remarkable examples at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson AZ, along with the Super Fortress, the B-29 (it is a great restoration) The Pima Museum is fantastic, picking up many old war birds from the near by military bone yard. I recall years ago the giant tails of B-52 Stratofortresses standing tall in the desert, with the mirage making the desert appear as a lake, the tails looked like sail boats from far off. These planes have mostly dissappeared as scrap now. When my dad was a kid, he recalls the giant B-36's with ten engines (six turning, four burning, ie six props, four jets) flying in formation, then making their final landing in Tuscon. A B-36 made a hell of a lot of beer cans. (and never dropped a bomb in anger, but it kept the ruski commies from attacking).

I have a working radio reciever from a B-17, my uncle found a pile of them at the dump in Tuscon decades ago. The Air force had removed the vacuum tubes, tossed them in a truck, took them to the dump, and tossed them out, they had an Airforce guy smash each one with a sledge hammer to prevent anyone from picking one up (why, this was in the 1970's, nothing special about them, they were alread 25 years old then???) at anyrate the sledge hammer missed a couple, and back then there were still a few old radio stores that stocked old tubes, some were pretty hard to find, but we got it working again, had to put a transformer in it to convert from 120 volt to 24 volt, but heck that thing still picks up shortwave from around the world (conditions permitting)

I wonder if any collector group will ever get their hands on a B-52 some day and get it flying!!! no one flies the few remaining B-36's, but with fuel prices, four engines is probably all that can be afforded to feed.

There is a private collector near me that single handedly owns well over 200 military vehicles on his 400+ arce ranch, he has over 60 tanks! and even a Scud missle on a mobile launcher!!!! (No Shit!!) And I thought old 914's were fun. He also has a Kublewagen, and Schwiminwagen, so there is the Porsche content in my post.

cheers!

Fuddy Duddy at Newport News last fall--found out too late to fly but got to take a tour and a departure photo.

You watch the movies and you think these are huge, but they're really not . . .

There's a local guy runs a place called the "Fighter Factory." His collection includes a Spitfire MkVIII, P-51, and P-40. Rumor has it he just picked up a F-4U Corsair. Not sure where he finds them. I've seen him airborne in the Spitfire 2 or 3 times. Would sure like to see the collection up close.

Some of the finds get pulled out of the water, alot of German planes get pulled out of Russia, and alot of planes get pulled out of ex-Name A Third World Country Here airforce's parts piles.


M

You can buy a B-24, or even an A-26 for the price of a San Diego condo ($450,000) still Ya, I thought about it, but I have a problem supporting my Porsche habbit.

http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/p51sf...16mar2003.shtml



http://www.barnstormers.com/cat.php


M

QUOTE (dmenche914 @ May 16 2005, 05:47 PM)

Many that are left are still here cause they were used as fire water bombers after the war. They had use in war, defeating the bad guys, and in peace fighting fires.

My dad flew B-24's and B-29's during the war. As a kid I became an airplane fan and read everything I could find about them. I remember old B-17's and B-25's being used to spray for insect control in the area and my dad taking my sister and I out to the airport to look at them. I was dissapointed because the gun turrets had been removed.

QUOTE (dmenche914 @ May 16 2005, 05:47 PM)

The Air force had removed the vacuum tubes, tossed them in a truck, took them to the dump, and tossed them out, they had an Airforce guy smash each one with a sledge hammer to prevent anyone from picking one up...

You just hit on one of my biggest gripes. That gear was payed for by the taxpayers. When the gov't is through with it, it should be returned to the taxpayers in fair condition. Planes, boats, jeeps, trucks, generators, compressors, trousers, whatever. There are a few items (heavy weapons) that should stay out of the public's hands, but the rest ought to be returned to the public at auction.

-Ben M.

John Lush and I got to take a ride in their B-17 "Sentimental Journey" a few years ago. It sure gives you an appreciation of what those guys went through day in and day out during the war!

Nothing like the sounds and smells of those big radials vibrating the hell out of the airframe.

Awesome Tom.

QUOTE (airsix @ May 17 2005, 01:14 PM)

You just hit on one of my biggest gripes. That gear was payed for by the taxpayers. When the gov't is through with it, it should be returned to the taxpayers in fair condition. Planes, boats, jeeps, trucks, generators, compressors, trousers, whatever. There are a few items (heavy weapons) that should stay out of the public's hands, but the rest ought to be returned to the public at auction. -Ben M.

Like it used to be.


M