b-17 down

[Barry Donovan]

liberty belle

this vid is of liberty belle, no babbling. less than one month ago.

on one of its missions in ww2, it was the only one of 12 to make it back to base...
later on hit by another plane that was thrshed into it by a tornado..
and it tested turbo prop engines for a time.

always busy it seems.

sad day for the preservationists.

[Cyclone03]

Oh this is sad...
Everytime I see an old war bird fly I think this could be the last time I see one fly.
Glad all got out safe,that's most important.

[squirrel]

definitely a sad day....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-crews-responding-to-incident-involving-wwii-bomber-20110613,0,5852034.story

[Beagle]

"all 7 aboard said to be okay"


Definitely sad.

[BBR]

That's the plane my Dad got to fly on last fall.

[studemax]

Now that's a tragedy.

[Scott Liggett]

Any one else think this photo has had some major touch ups ala Photoshop?

[ls7gto]

local news video, I dont think ant photoshop is involved.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8187278

[tiresmoke!]

Good possibility....but that old bird is still gonzo regardless.

Served well, and the big story from this is no casualties...got her final "crew" to the ground safely.

[pdub]

I wish my dad had been given a chance to fly on that thing. He was trained B-17 as a tail gunner. When one of the flying ones came to an airport near home, Daddy was already too old and sick and in the hospital to go out there and see it or get on it.

He would have been one of the veterans whose eyes lit up and then became 18 years old again. Because that's what he was when he was on one. His stories....The captain was 23 years old, so everybody on the crew called the captain "Old Man."

[Barry Donovan]

still got the front and back.

the b-17 is apparently beamless...

They gave it a new fuselage once... I bet they can do it again. in fact that is easier than fixing a bent beam a 707/717 might get down the middle (the one I worked on is junked).

I would not be surprised.

[Scott Liggett]

There was a general in the Air Force that my Dad used to work with. He had a P-51 called Yosemite Sam. He wrecked it taking off. The rudder cables snapped and the engine's torque put it right on it's lid. He got hurt. Never knew if he was ever able to get it air worthy again.

Restoring old planes really involves basically rebuilding with all new parts, new aluminum skins, new aluminum braces and rivets. In the end, the restored plane is almost just a copy of the old one because their is so little that is original left.

[Silver68RT]

I think they were very lucky. There's some pictures of it before it landed, and you can see there's fire in the wing behind the left inboard engine. It could have got into a fuel tank and exploded or had a wing come off before they got it on the ground. I think the pilot did a hell of a job, just too bad there was no way to put the fire out after they landed. I don't think there's enough left to restore it this time.

Here's a link to the thread on WIX.

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41377

[1970camaroRS]

Since I'm intimately involved in this industry, this has been a sad day for me. I have been working as a pro aviation photographer for almost a year now in addition to my day job(photography doesn't pay as much as you'd think!). I was busy taking pictures of this for an aviation related publication:



While two of my collegues were busy taking pictures of the Liberty Belle. Funny thing is the picture above was for one of those guys. Wish I had seen the Belle when I had a chance...but choices have to be made sometimes.

Here are some shots my friends took two months ago. They are stills from super-hi res 360 degree images that you can pan, zoom, etc.







And another of our collegues was there shooting stills. http://www.flickr.com/photos/-jplpho...7624111579313/

[BBR]

A few pics.