Warbird Information Exchange

Famed WWII warbird takes veterans on a memory ride
Seattle Times 05/25/2006
Author: Erik Lacitis
(Copyright 2006)


To Russ Reed of Port Ludlow, the old warplane and its ride felt pretty much the same as when he was 20.

Back in the summer of 1944, he was among the hundreds of U.S. Army Air Force pilots of what would become one of the world's most famous aircraft, the B-17 -- the Flying Fortress.

In World War II, based out of Nuthampstead, England, he and the other young crew could open a hatch and swing themselves inside like gymnasts. Now, at 82, he used steps to board the plane just like everyone else after it arrived at Boeing Field.

The B-17 was designed by Boeing and built in Seattle and elsewhere. It is a four-engine, machine-gun-loaded bomber with a distinctive clear acrylic glass nose. There were 12,726 of the planes built.

Only 13 survived in airworthy condition, such as the one that arrived here Wednesday, part of a tour by the nonprofit Experimental Aircraft Association of Oshkosh, Wisc. Most of the others ended up as scrap metal.

Wednesday's weather provided wind and rain, not unfamiliar conditions for the WWII pilots. "It's going to be bumpy and noisy," Reed said, before he boarded as a guest and sat behind the pilot.

And it was, with the 1,200-horsepower engines creating a din that went right through the aluminum frame. There is no insulation on the B-17s against noise, nor against below-freezing temperatures experienced at high altitudes. Crews had heated wires hooked up to the plane's electrical system going through their suits as they went on flights ranging up to 11 hours.

The crews of the B-17 are justifiably proud of their and the plane's role.

A recent story in Air Force Magazine said the B-17 may well have been "the most famous bomber of World War II, becoming the symbol of the U.S. Army Air Forces' daylight precision bombing campaign against Germany."

The B-17, the article said, "was an airplane of legendary toughness, surviving with, as one author put it, 'wings punctured and ablaze, tail surfaces shredded, with chunks of its graceful body gouged out by cannon fire, flak or midair collision.' "

Plus, it just looked tough.

With its 13 .50-caliber machine guns, it bristled with firepower. There were guns coming out of the nose, below the nose, the roof, the middle underside and the tail.

The plane got its name when a Seattle Times reporter, Richard L. Williams, wrote a story in 1935 about its unveiling, describing it as a "flying fortress." Boeing liked the description and copyrighted it.

Still, despite the armament, the casualty rate for the B-17 crews was high. Reed was on his fifth mission when his plane was shot down on Nov. 2, 1944.

For a time, it managed to fly -- despite flak damage that took out the tail gun, forced the shutdown of one engine with a second engine going at half power, and damaged the vertical fin and left horizontal stabilizer. Then the plane went aflame.

The nine men on the crew bailed out and were taken prisoners by the Germans. Reed spent half a year as a POW, until the end of the war.

Reed wrote his story of that day in Flak News, a quarterly publication of the 398th Bomb Group Memorial Association.

For the past two decades, working out of his condominium in Ballard, Allen Ostrom, 85, has been the keeper of the memories told in the newsletter. Ostrom was a tail gunner.

Ostrom also was at Boeing Field on Wednesday, watching as the engines of the B-17 were started up and smoke wafted around. "That's the sound," he said over the roar. "That's music to my ears."

Ostrom remembered flying one mission in which flak whistled past his head. Another time, as an enemy plane flew past during a machine-gun fight, he remembers staring into the face of a German fighter, who was staring back at him.

"I never entertained the feeling that I might be killed," Ostrom said. "Never." But then, he said, the noise and discomfort on those long flights never bothered him, either.

"When you're 19, 20 years old, it's not difficult," he said. "You can do anything when you're that age."

To see the Flying Fortress

Today through Sunday, the B-17 Flying Fortress will be at the Museum of Flight, 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, with ground tours from 2 -- 6 p.m.

Cost $10 for a family, $6 for adults, $5 for students, with no charge to accompanied children under age 8 and no charge for ground tours for WWII veterans.

Private flights Passengers rates for a half-hour tour are $385 for members of the nonprofit Experimental Aircraft Association and $425 for non-members. To book a flight call 920-371-2246.