Heard the unmistakable sound of radial engines overhead this morning and a little later while running some errands saw a B17 low over the south horizon. Montgomery County Airport lies there so I took the short trip over to see what I could see. I didn't have quality video gear with me (which makes since as I don't own any!) so I took these two videos with my cell phone. Quality being what it is I've attached is photo of the actual machine in the vids.
75 years ago, the Boeing Airplane CompanyB-17 for a contract that called for 200 of the aircraft, and by the end of production, Boeing had built a total of 6,981 B-17s. The Douglas Aircraft Company and the Vega Aircraft Corporation (a subsidiary of the Lockheed Aircraft Company) together built another 5,745 B-17sBoeing. designed the under license from
“Texas Raiders” was built in 1944 by the Douglas Aircraft Company at their Long Beach, CaliforniaU.S. Army Air Corps as B-17G-95-DL 44-83872. Her fuselage number was 2987, and factory number was 32513. Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) had past, and the USAAC did not have a need for more of the heavy bombers, so on July 21 of 1945, all 20 of these Douglas B-17s were transferred to the U.S. Navy to serve as PB-1W Patrol Bombers. B-17GU.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics Number (BuNo) 77235. plant. Built under contract number AC-1862, she was one of the last 20 B-17s built by Douglas and was delivered on July 12, 1945 to the #44-83872 was assigned the the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics Number (BuNo) 77235.
Only 13 - 14 of these left flying today so it was a rare treat to see first hand. I stuck around after taking the videos so I could savor the visual event without being hampered by aiming a phone and it did a few more takeoffs and landings.....very cool!
