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From a wesite and it 25’ x 75’...

>Entering the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum’s World War II gallery, a visitor is plunged into a time warp by a wall sized mural. Suddenly it’s August 15, 1944. A Messerschmitt and several Focke-Wulf fighters roar through the blue sky 25,000 feet over Germany, trying to shoot down four Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses that have just bombed a Luftwaffe airfield at Wiesbaden. Snowy white contrails stretch behind the aircraft, providing a contrast to the black puffs of flak that dot the sky. Guns poised and Wright Cyclone engines roaring, the lead airplane Thunder Bird, seems ready to fly out of the wall into three-dimensional reality.

The 75 by 25 foot oil mural, titled “Fortress Under Fire,” was painted by aviation artist Keith Ferris. In 1975, the Museum commissioned Ferris to paint a mural on World War II aerial bombardment. B-17’s were to be the subject, but the Museum did not specify any particular craft or mission to be depicted. Says Ferris, “ That just wasn’t my way of doing things. I like to paint a specific moment in time.” So he enlisted the help of aviation historian Jeff Ethell, and they chose the mission Ferris finally portrayed.

Thanks to careful research by Ferris and Ethell, the painting is historically accurate down to the number of bombs - signifying completed missions - painted on Thunder Bird’s nose. Ferris chose that particular airplane, a B-17G from the Eighth Air Force’s 303rd Bomb Group, as his subject because it was a suitably battle-scared veteran and because its nose art was tasteful enough for display in the Museum (some bomber crews painted pretty risque illustrations on their aircraft). Working from slides and photographs, some supplied by a neighbor whose brother had once flown Thunder Bird, Ferris painted the mural in 75 days.

That August bombing raid was Thunder Bird’s 72nd mission of an eventual 116. In 1945 the airplane was declared war-weary and scrapped. “They made pots and pans out of her,” says Ferris.

Last summer Thunder Bird returned to the United States - at least in spirit. Another B-17G, bearing the same name and the same red, white, and black artwork on it’s nose, left England for a new home - the Lone Star Flight Museum in Houston, Texas. The airplane, which had been used by the French government after the war for photo-mapping, had been sold to the Texas museum by a vintage-aircraft dealer in England.

Glenn MacDonald, the Lone Star Museum’s director at the time, found the airplane in poor condition when he arrived in England to complete the purchase. Before he flew it back to the States, the aircraft received much-needed repair work - and a new identity. According to present Lone Star director James E. Fausz, the airplane was modeled after Thunder Bird fort he same reasons Ferris had used it for the mural; the paint scheme and history of the original aircraft were both rather dramatic.

Repaired, painted, and newly certified for airworthiness, Thunder Bird flew from Duxford, England, to Prestwick, Scotland - which had been the site of an Eighth Air Force base during World War II. From there MacDonald flew to former bomber bases in Iceland and Greenland, as well as several cities in Canada and the United States. After arriving at Teterboro, New Jersey, Thunder Bird made a flight around the statue of Liberty with Keith Ferris aboard as a passenger. “It was a real thrill because of my association with the airplane,” says Ferris.

During the week-long trip from England to Houston, the new Thunder Bird proved as trustworthy as the original. “We didn’t have any trouble at all,” MacDonald says. “It purred like a kitten.” Thunder Bird had made it home one more time.