Liberty Foundation's Liberty Belle - B-17

As I'm new to the forum, I thought I'd take the time to write up and share my experiences from a couple of flights taken on various WWII US bombers. (B-17s and a B-24).

My flight on the Liberty Belle was in June 2006 out of Spirit of St Louis Airport. It was quite an adventure that day as when I arrived early for the afternoon flight they informed us that the plane was parked needing to undergo a "quick" weld on an exhaust manifold. They had noticed a small crack in a manifold and it wasn't going to take too long to fix. Of course this was on a Sunday afternoon and the only welder they could find was far from the location. However, I was in no hurry to cancel my experience!

Fortunately, they opened up the area to allow all of the visitors a chance to walk up and glance in the 17 while parked awaiting repairs. Sadly, the time passed and many of the veterans on hand scheduled for a flight weren't able to continue their wait and had to leave without having their flight. It was very nice to engage in conversation with them and hear their stories from their wartime experience. Probably the best comment was when one of them said something to the effect of "shoot, during the war we would have just put some chewing gum over that crack and taken off for the Nazi's. A cracked manifold was the least of our worries!"

My wait proved worthwhile as the welder finally arrived and made the repair. I enjoyed seeing the process which included taking the manifold and cutting it clean, then proceeding to weld back. All of this without one single measurement. This of course resulted in the use of a BFH (ie hammer) when the 17 mechanic went to re-install. Given many of the attendees weren't able to stay around for their flight I was bumped up to the first flight post repair.

Being on the first flight we were onboard as the engines were fired. That was quite an experience. Flight was great. The 17 is very smooth on take off and landing. We were able to walk around the various positions from the waist guns to the amazing nose cone! Again, the flight is over way before you're ready for it to be!

One item to note on the Liberty Belle is that they did remove and/or lack some of the original equipment. In addition, there were fixed chairs in certain position for use in take off and landing. This is a little different than the other 17 I'd flown in previously. Not that it took away from the experience itself but just something I noticed.

Ok, on to the pics! Hope all enjoy.



One thing really nice is that they have all veterans on hand sign the plane in various spots:


Cracked manifold:


Mechanic going to install weld manifold:

 

My fav pic from this flight. A shot out of the front nose while we were passing over the Missouri River in St. Charles County. I have this one blown up in my office and is quite the conversation piece:

 

The 17 really is a beautiful plane to photograph. Final pics here are some a couple random angles I took while waiting out the repair.

 

very nice! thanks for sharing!

 

Few more pics and video's of the Liberty Belle from Memorial Day weekend 2007. I didn't fly during this visit but went out to Spirit Airport to take some photos and watch a couple of takeoffs and landings. Just seeing one of these birds is an experience, watching it flying is even better!