Taking A Ride on the Liberty Belle

The Virginian ^ | 8/18/2008 | Moneyrunner

[Notary Sojac]

Well, all I can relate is what I saw and was told at the AFM. There were some parts that clearly had been thinned by corrosion which were being refinished and prepped for installation, for example some control surface framework which I for one would not want attached to any plane I flew in...

The Enola Gay on the other hand you may be right about. She did go into museum storage not too long after the war, as compared to the Belle which sat out in that Tennessee weather for forty-odd years.

[Jimmy Valentine]

"Enola Gay is probably flyable"

Saw her a couple of times at Silver Hill when they were putting her back together. Fantastic!

She is at the Edgar Hazy (sic) section of Air and Space out at Dulles Airport in Virginia.

She is beautiful and looks as though all you need is an ignition key to get her going.

As an aside, watching the Japanese Tourists faces when they see her is interesting. (I'm so ashamed! ;^))

[Bringbackthedraft]

Back in the late 80’s I was in a hanger at USAFB Dover DE and had the opportunity to roam around inside a B 17 that they were re building. It never saw action in WW II, it was to be used as a drone. It still had the drab color. I wonder what happened to it. There was also a HE 111 at the shows up until a couple of years ago. It was used in the movie Battle of Britain and was of Spanish origin built with different engines. I’ve been told it crashed and was totalled out. I was in it at one of the shows and it was cramped inside. BTW, the B-17 didn’t seem as large inside as they appear in the movies. The cat walk that divides the bombay area is narrow and there isn’t that much room in the waist as it appears in films. Obviously they had to build sets to allow the cameras in. As a kid, they still had them near our home flying out of a NAS for sea patrols. The last time one flew over me was 1956, and boy, do I miss hearing the sound of their engines.

[tanknetter]

Back in the late 80’s I was in a hanger at USAFB Dover DE and had the opportunity to roam around inside a B 17 that they were re building. It never saw action in WW II, it was to be used as a drone. It still had the drab color. I wonder what happened to it.

There's a good list of B-17 survivors here

My guess is that you saw 44-83624 "Sleepy Time Gal", although the restoration timeline synchs with "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby", currently of the NMUSAF (but to be sent to NASM sometime down the road). SSSB is a combat vet, tho.

The He-111 was probably the CAF's.

[tanknetter]

As an aside, watching the Japanese Tourists faces when they see her is interesting. (I'm so ashamed! ;^))

There's a great story that the Docents and Curators at NASM like to tell. At the time of the atomic bombings the Japanese I-400 subs and their gaggle of Seirans were on their way to launch a suicide attack on the US carrier fleet at Ulithi. Halfway there the bombs were dropped, Japan surrendered and the war was over. They got to live.

Several decades later NASM's Seiran, the last surviving example in the world, is being restored out at Garber in Suitland Maryland. At the time they were running a couple reservation-only tours every Saturday. One Saturday this elderly Japanese man shows up with a younger one (son or grandson who acts as a translator). The elderly Japanese man has a LOT of questions, very particular questions, about the restoration of the Seiran.

Turns out he was the CO of the Seiran squadron.

At that point the museum staff puts him up into the cockpit partially-restored plane. The Seiran CO had even brought his old leather flying helmet and goggles with him, and puts them on. The museum staff scrambles for cameras ...

When Udvar-Hazy opens the museum staff, which has kept up correspondence with the CO and his family, invite them out to see the plane fully restored, assembled and on display.

During the course of his visit (during which he's again allowed to climb inside the plane's cockpit), someone asks him what he thinks of "his" plane being positioned almost directly underneath Enola Gay.

He recounts how he and his squadron were aboard their subs, getting ready to go kamikaze the US carriers. He looked up at Enola Gay and said "that plane didn't just save my life, it also saved my country".