It was at an air show here in Atlanta a few years ago. Flew in, flew out. I don’t know where this article is getting its information.
Me and my wife took a B17 ride some years back when it came to Columbia.
30 minutes was enough for 6’3, 260 pound me.
I recommend anyone to take a ride.
There are other B-17s in flyable condition. The ‘Belle has not been flight worthy in a very long time. Whatever B-17 you saw, it wasn’t this one.
It was at an air show here in Atlanta a few years ago. Flew in, flew out. I don’t know where this article is getting its information.
You're thinking of the less famous "West Memphis Belle".
;0)
That wasn’t THE Memphis Belle.
What you saw at the airshow was the “Movie Memphis Belle”. The way to tell the two apart is the original has “Memphis Belle” in block letters, while the movie plane has it in a cursive script.
The movie plane is actually a B-17G back dated to a B-17F
Check out the bottom of this page:
http://www.libertyfoundation.org/b17history.html
It was not the same one, but they used the name.
It wasn’t the original Memphis Belle. After returning from England, it was featured (along with its crew) in a nationwide war bond tour. After the war, it was discovered sitting in a “boneyard” in Oklahoma, to be sold for scrap. To his credit, the Mayor of Memphis bought the aircraft, saved it from destruction and brought it back to the city for display.
Unfortunately, the leaders of Memphis neglected the famed bomber. It was displayed outdoors, exposed to the elements. And vandals soon made their way inside, stealing virtually anything they could from the aircraft. Eventually, the B-17 was moved to a new exhibit area on Mud Island, in the Mississippi River, but it was still (partly) exposed to the weather and the city made no effort to restore the aircraft.
The Air Force Museum in Dayton finally took possession of the aircraft in 2005. It has taken 13 years—and over 55,000 hours of volunteer work—to restore the “Belle” to something approaching its original condition. Many of the cockpit gauges had to be built from scratch, using original schematics.
Very few flyable B-17s still around. Commemorative Air Force has one, based in the Houston area. Nicknamed “Texas Raider,” it rolled off the assembly line in July 1945, just before the war ended. Collings Foundation has another late-production bird that is also a regular on the air show circuit. The foundation’s bird is nicknamed “Nine O Nine,” in honor of a legendary B-17 that completed 140 combat missions without an abort or loss of a single crewman.
You might have seen one of those B-17s at the Atlanta air show. It was definintely not the original “Memphis Belle”
Nope, it was another 17 painted as a look alike. The real one hasn’t flown since 1946.
Are you sure that wasn’t Aluminum Overcast?
I don’t think the Memphis Belle has been in flying condition for decades. Last time I saw it, it was on static display near Memphis.