Replies

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”