Carefully-made wooden B-17 model planes are our forte!
January 30, 2013 Leave a Comment
Though it has been almost 70 years since Marvin Goldberg flew in a B-17 bomber, the experience remained familiar when he traveled in one to the Sebring Regional Airport. When the plane’s engines started, he recalled those were the sounds he heard as a pilot of a B-17 during World War II. Read more of this post
October 12, 2012 Leave a Comment
Tours of the Memphis Belle, a WWII-era B-17 Flying Fortress, will be available Sunday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. at Spirit Airport in Chesterfield. The flights last half an hour and cost $450 and the proceeds will go the Liberty Foundation, to keep the Memphis Belle in the air.
Pilot John Shuttleworth says it costs $5,500 an hour to operate the Memphis Belle. “It’s a very rare experience,” said Shuttleworth.
“There’s only five B-17s that go around the country today, out of more than 12,780 that were made. There are 12 that are capable of flight, and only five that actually fly.” Shuttleworth said ground tours of the plane will also be available on Sunday for a donation. For more information, visit the organization’s website. To schedule a flight, call 918-340-0423.
Relive your wartime memories when you get your own B-17 model airplane from Showcase Models. Choose from the many handcrafted model planes including large scale model planes, military aircraft models, and other wooden model planes.
Source: http://www.ksdk.com
September 13, 2012 Leave a Comment
The Liberty Foundation, a non-profit flying museum, is offering flights in the B-17 “Memphis Belle”, the flying star of the 1989 movie of the same name, this weekend at Concord Regional Airport. The “Flying Fortress” in particular is one of only 13 B-17s that are still flying today.
Media takes part of a special flight on a restored Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” on Monday at the Concord Airport. The B-17 is part of the Liberty Foundation’s 2012 Salute to Veterans tour that will be available for public flights this weekend. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.
Tom “Pinky” Funderburk was on one of the two 30-minute flights Liberty Foundation provided for the media last Monday. Funderburk, whose nickname referred to his bright red hair, was a 19-year-old pilot in World War II.
Of Funderburk’s 17 missions, six were food drops over Holland, where regions had been starved by the Germans. Funderburk said his B-17 and scores of others piloted by the British and Americans would drop thousands of pounds of food into fields marked off by white cloth.
Another memorable, non-bombing mission for Funderburk involved the flying of freed French prisoners of war from Austria to Paris. On the bombing missions themselves, Funderburk and his crew returned OK, never being forced to bail out, never running out of fuel, which was always a concern on the return trips after dropping a payload.
Funderburk, a lieutenant during the war, came back to North Carolina and served in the reserves, logging 20 years and retiring as a major. He continued to fly and have a keen interest in aviation in civilian life as he built a Charlotte sales career in mechanical specialty items, such as instruments for pumps.
Retired, the 87-year-old Funderburk now lives in Rock Hill. He already had completed a year at The Citadel when he entered flight training school in Arizona as an 18-year-old. Within 14 months, he had earned his wings and was shipped off to Europe.
The Liberty Foundation’s 2012 Salute to Veterans Tour will be offering flights on the B-17 “Memphis Belle,” the same bomber used in the 1989 movie of the same name.
—- When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
—- Where: Concord Regional Airport, 9000 Aviation Blvd., Concord
—- Cost: $410 for Liberty Foundation members; $450 for non-members.
—- Length of flight: roughly 30 minutes, with the whole experience taking about 45 minutes.
—- Pre-registration: Walk-ins without an appointment on the days of the flights are welcome. You also can choose a time for the flight by calling 918-340-0243, or emailing Scott Maher at smaher@libertyfoundation.org.
—- The flights will take place generally from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., but the plane will be open for free on-the-ground tours, inside and out, for the rest of the day, as long as people keep coming.
Relive your wartime memories when you get your own B-17 model airplane from Showcase Models. Choose from the many model airplanes for sale including large scale model planes, diecast airplane models, and other wooden aircraft models.
Source: http://www.salisburypost.com
September 8, 2011 Leave a Comment
A World War II B-17 bomber is on display at the DeKalb County Airport, Auburn.
“The B-17 represents everything that is good about America,” said Dan Bowlin, a pilot with the Experimental Aircraft Association, based out of Oshkosh, Wis. “This is the airplane that helped win World War II, along with the B-24.”
EAA tour coordinator, Tim Fox, said putting the bombers on display allows the public to connect with the veterans.
“Dad was a pilot, or dad was a gunner, or was a navigator,” said Fox. “And they just want to go on a ride in the airplane and try to understand what happened, and what that time was like.”
On Monday, nearly 50 people came out to see the B-17, including World War II veteran, Harold Meiser of Rochester. Meiser spent six months as a prisoner, and was released at the end of the war.
“The plane speaks for itself,” said Meiser, who was captured by the Germans in November of 1944. “Four of us got out. Four or five didn’t get out, and I evaded them for five days on the ground. The others were all injured, and they couldn’t walk.”
B-17s were flown by the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), throughout the American participation in the Second World War. They were used by the US Eighth Air Force, based in the UK, to bombard German targets in Europe during daylight hours, a method which resulted initially in very heavy losses of aircraft and crew. As B-17 refinements progressed, along with better pilot training and tactics, it would become a formidable adversary in the Allied war against Germany.
Source: wane.com, aviation-history
July 15, 2011 Leave a Comment
Ed Youngers, a war veteran from had Calamus, Iowa had one of the worst jobs in World War II — a tail gunner on a B-17 bomber. He was one of hundreds of visitors who took a step back in time Friday to wander around, tour and even fly in the B-17 now sitting at the Davenport Municipal Airport.
Youngers flew 10 missions in a plane like this, was shot down once and spent three-and-a-half days in a life raft in the North Sea before “spending some time in one of Hitler’s motels.”
“The tail of the planes then only had a canvas covering, and flying out of England in the fog, the guns were almost frozen by the time we got to Germany,” he recalled. “When the plane went down, a wing was on fire and four of the 10 crewmen bailed out because “usually a wing on fire means an explosion.”
However, Youngers, now 91, didn’t know what was going on because there wasn’t an intercom. He tunnelled up to the front and heard the pilots say they were going to ditch the plane.
“It’s a good thing I came back to the tail because the German planes followed us all the way down,” he said. He and the five other crew members who stayed on the plane survived.
This B-17 Flying Fortress, nicknamed “Aluminum Overcast,” is owned by the Experimental Aircraft Association of Oshkosh, Wis.It was built in 1945 at the end of the war and never saw combat. The plane display continues today and Sunday at the Davenport Municipal Airport, 9230 N. Harrison St.
Source: Quad-City Times
