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The Flying Legends of Victory Tour made a stop at the Gatineau Executive Airport this weekend in conjunction with Vintage Wings of Canada. The tour is part of the Commemorative Air Force – Arizona Wing, based in Mesa, Arizona, which has a similar mission to Vintage Wings in that they take vintage aircraft, many of them military, restore them to flying condition, and then use them to travel the continent as part of an educational program. In past years they have come with a B-25 (Maid in the Shade) and a B-29 (FiFi) but this year we were visited by a B-17 named Sentimental Journey. They provide tours of the aircraft as well as the opportunity to go up for flights. In the B-17, the mid-fuselage gun positions can hold six people at $475 USD per person and the navigator and bombardier (nose) positions cost $850 per person for about a 25 minute flight. Tours of the B-17 once returned to static display are $15 CDN per person.
The B-17 is one of the great bombers of WWII and helped destroy much of the German industrial strength. Britain had tried doing bombing raids in the daytime but found that without fighter cover, their losses were too great so resorted to nighttime bombing raids of formations up to and over 1,000 aircraft at once. Losses were still great and for a bomb to be considered a hit, it had to land within 3 miles of its intended target. Now, I’m no explosives expert but my guess would be that a 500 pound bomb doesn’t do much damage from miles away.
Enter the Americans into the European Theatre and the VIII Bomber Command with the 97th Bombardment Group flying twelve B-17Es. On August 17th, 1942, the Group flew a mission against the Rouen-Sotteville marshalling yards with the mission commander being Paul Tibbets who, four years later, would drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima from a B-29.
In Europe, the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) was divided into tactical and strategic groups with the VIII Bomber Command becoming the first strategic group as the 8th Air Force. The USAAF decided that the B-17s had enough defensive guns that, when flying in formation and supporting each other, they could do daylight bombing runs to Germany without fighter escort and guarantee bombing accuracy using the Norden bombsight. To that end the 8th Air Force carried out many daylight strategic missions into Germany putting pressure on German fighters and ground defences both day and night in conjunction with the British air forces. By the end of the war, the 8th Air Force did, on occasion, manage to send up 2,000+ four engine bombers supported by 1,000 plus fighters on a single mission.
After Germany surrendered, plans were made to transfer heavy bomber groups to the Pacific and refit them with B-29 Superfortresses. However, the atomic bombs and the subsequent Japanese surrender made this plan moot as the war ended before any of the transfers happened. The B-17 was the third most produced bomber of all time and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft in WWII.
This particular B-17G, Sentimental Journey, was built by Douglas Aircraft (under licence) in late 1944, and accepted by the USAAF in March, 1945. It served in the Pacific Theatre for the duration of the war and then was put in storage in Japan after the war ended. In 1947 it was configured for photo-mapping and used in the Philippines until 1950 when it was transferred to Florida for air-sea rescue operations. In January, 1959, Sentimental Journey was transferred to storage in Arizona where, after a couple of months, it was purchased by Aero Union Corporation and put to use as a forest fire suppression bomber for 18 years. On January 14th, 1978, Sentimental Journey was purchased and donated to the newly formed Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force and, although it was airworthy, it no longer represented a WWII B-17G. In December, 1981, the aircraft started restoration and by 1985 had four operational turrets, an operating bomb bay, navigator and radio operator positions, machines guns, and a Norden bombsight. She is one of three still flying of almost 13,000 that were built.
The nose art on Sentimental Journey is the world famous Betty Grable pin-up from WWII and the name Sentiment Journey comes from the song of the same name made popular by Doris Day in 1945. It has also appeared in the movie “1941” in 1979 directed by Steven Spielberg and the engine sounds were recorded and used in the series “Masters of the Air”.
Statistically, the B-17 has a wingspan of 103’9” and length of 74’4” weighing in at 36,000 lb empty up a gross weight of 54,000 lb with a max takeoff weight of 65,000 lbs. It’s powered by four Wright R1820-97 Cyclone turbocharged radial engines giving it max. speed of 287 mph, cruise speed of 187 mph, and a range of 2,000 miles with a 6,000 lb bombload at up to 35,600 feet altitude. On short missions (less than 400 miles) the bombload could be increased up to 8,000 lbs but on longer missions (greater than 800 miles) the load would be decreased to 4,500 lbs. For protection, the B-17 bristled with thirteen 0.50 calibre machine guns in nine positions including doubling up in the turrets.
My thanks to all the people involved in getting me closer than normal photographic shooting positions to photograph this iconic aircraft. I won’t mention specific names so they are not inundated with requests from people for future events but I do need to thank the Commemorative Air Force for allowing me to take the pictures, Vintage Wings of Canada for airfield access and acting as my Commemorative Air Force liaison, the Gatineau Executive Airport for their assistance for airfield access and for putting through my request to Nav Canada, and lastly to Nav Canada for approving the request.
