B-17 piece on national news website

[JohnB]

I just happened to see this...
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/29/b- ... erans.html

Whether you like Fox or not, it's good to see a warbird operation get national attention.

[Pat Carry]

Thats great!

[Chris Brame]

Madras Maiden's co-pilot is only 21? I guess in wartime that was typical but it's pretty amazing now.

[JohnB]

I recently met the Collings chief pilot, he was under 25 as well.
My dad was 20 when he began pilot training in 1943, at 21 he was co- piloting B-17s (and while training at Lincoln, Nebraska he got some time in a YB-40). He spent his 22nd birthday in Italy assigned to the 463rd BG...the war had ended a few weeks before.

[leo]

I met a guy at Stead this summer when Aluminum Overcast was at Stead airfield. He had a collection of pics, and most incredible, bomb safety pins with tags from every mission his grandfather had flown. VERY cool.
As the veterans get older and pass, some of the next, or NEXT generation get the interest ion the history. Good to see.

[marine air]

Please don't compare the current generation of Americans with the WW II generation. We are a different country now.

[JohnB]

Please don't compare the current generation of Americans with the WW II generation. We are a different country now.

No doubt the same thing was said by old timers just before WWII.
"All the kids today want to do is dance the jitterbug, listen to Glenn Miler on the radio and drive fast cars...".

[wendovertom]

More than anything I am impressed that the young guy is able to have the time and $$ to spend so much time on the road with the plane. I am jealous and I guess a bit sad that as a younger guy I did not take the opportunity to do something similar. With diabetes I could not have flown but I certainly would have crewed every chance I got.

Tom P.

Last edited by wendovertom on Mon Oct 02, 2017 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[p51]

Please don't compare the current generation of Americans with the WW II generation. We are a different country now.

No doubt the same thing was said by old timers just before WWII.
"All the kids today want to do is dance the jitterbug, listen to Glenn Miler on the radio and drive fast cars...".

Yep, my late uncle, a WW2 vet confirmed that "these kids today" was a gripe his generation got, too. He's the one who told me that it was biological that you think it's the generation after yours (never yours or before it) that has no work ethic or such. When I hit my late 30s, I started feeling it and realized he was right all those years ago.
Just see what these kids are doing in Iraq. They can step up when they have to.

[menards]

Madras Maiden's co-pilot is only 21? I guess in wartime that was typical but it's pretty amazing now.

IIRC, the minimum quals for a SIC rating in the B-17 is a Private Pilot Cert, Multi Engine rating, and Tail wheel endorsement. From there youll need to do B-17 ground school and then about 1.5-2 hrs in the air doing maneuvers and 3 t/o and landings to a full stop for the rating. Then you'll have B17 SIC Only printed on your ticket. You dont need to be rich to fly warbirds... you just need to be prepared when the right opportunities present themselves.

[shrike]

Please don't compare the current generation of Americans with the WW II generation. We are a different country now.

No doubt the same thing was said by old timers just before WWII.
"All the kids today want to do is dance the jitterbug, listen to Glenn Miler on the radio and drive fast cars...".

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” Socrates 5th Cent BC

[p51]

accept certain inalienable truths.
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old.
And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders

-From "Wear Sunscreen" by Mary Schmich
Emphasis were done by myself...