Hondo
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,655
- Location
- Northern California
Barnstorming Liberty Belle takes veterans time-traveling
It's a grand illusion, flying on a beautiful autumn Monday in a restored World War II B-17 Flying Fortress.
Up in the nose cone of the bomber, ahead of the pilot and co-pilot, the four big Curtis Wright engines roaring behind you, it seems as if there is nothing under your feet but air. Just for a moment, it feels as if you're a bombardier on a mission, heading to Occupied Europe.
But the Liberty Belle is a flying museum, barnstorming the country and offering rides to paying customers.
The plane went up for a media tour Monday, rising easily from an East Bay airport. It made a big pass over a body of water and turned south: It wasn't the English Channel, only the Oakland Estuary. In 30 seconds the Liberty Belle was 1,000 feet over Hayward.
All the elements were there: the 62-year-old plane, glistening silvery in the sun, the roar of the engines, 13 machine guns and simulated 500-pound bombs in the bomb bay.
For a few hundred bucks, passengers can ride behind the pilot or scrunch up to the Plexiglas nose cone, or if they are nimble, slither back to the tail gunner position, and imagine what that was like.
It is war without the war, adventure without the fear.
"We are the luckiest guys in the world," said Ron Gause, 72, a retired airline pilot. He is the co-pilot of the Liberty Belle. "It is an honor and a privilege to fly this plane. What we are doing is honoring the men who flew these planes every day."
Built in February 1945, the Liberty Belle is the real thing. It is one of 12,732 B-17 Fortresses to roll off the assembly line between 1935 and 1945. These planes were famous: the bombers ran thousands of raids over Nazi Europe. There were books and films about the B-17s.
"Think about it," said Ray Fowler, the pilot. "There was a crew of 10, flying in an unpressured plane, the temperature dropping down to 40 below zero ... other planes in formation falling out of the sky as the anti-aircraft got them, or the enemy fighters. Over 4,700 B-17s were lost in combat."
The memory of these planes has never died. They were big, powerful symbols of American might, bristling with 13 .50-caliber guns, flying in close formation at 30,000 feet, darkening the skies over Germany.
The Liberty Belle is one of a dozen of B-17s that still fly in North America. There is another in Great Britain and one more in France.
"Veterans often fly with us," said Fowler. "And when these guys get on board, they are 19 years old again for a second."
Veterans of World War II might find the planes smaller inside than they remembered, and more cramped. The fuselage seems thin, almost fragile. It's not easy to move around. For something that seemed so new during the war, the B-17 now seems old.
Fowler, who is 37, serves with the Alabama National Guard. He flies F-16s, and has flown two tours in the Iraq war. One F-16, he says, carries more bombing power than a whole squadron of B-17s.
After the war, the Liberty Belle was sold for scrap in 1947 without having seen combat. Pratt & Whitney, the aircraft firm, bought it to test turbo prop engines.
In 1968, it was donated to the Connecticut Aeronautical Society, but it was damaged on the ground in a tornado. Don Brooks of the nonprofit Liberty Foundation bought it in 2000 and restored it at a cost of $3.5 million. It flew again in December, 2004.
Now the plane is touring the country, offering rides to earn its keep. History is not inexpensive: The four engines burn 200 gallons of fuel an hour, and there are other expenses. Fowler says it costs $3,500 to $4,000 an hour to fly.
That means a ride aboard the plane is not cheap - $430 for a 45-minute flight experience - with 30 minutes in the air. The plane is flying Saturday and Sunday from the Hayward Executive Airport.
For a video from a flight aboard the Liberty Belle, go to sfgate.com.
Call the Liberty Belle
For information about the Liberty Belle, call the Liberty Foundation at (918) 340-0243 or go to www.libertyfoundation.org.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...BA5RSUAOA.DTL&hw=liberty+belle&sn=001&sc=1000
