EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE -- Test-pilot students training to test the Air Force's next generation of aircraft will get a chance to fly one from three generations ago -- a B-17 Flying Fortress.
The Air Force pilots are expected today to take turns flying the 57-year-old bomber named Aluminum Overcast in a session worked out as part of the bomber's visit to Saturday's Edwards Air Force Base air show.
Just finished with a weekend visit to Van Nuys Airport, Aluminum Overcast will be at Lancaster's Fox Field on Thursday to take people up on half-hour flights -- at $350 or $390 a person. The plane takes seven people up at a time, and at least one flight is booked. People can take tours of it on the ground Saturday at Edwards.
Aluminum Overcast is owned by Oshkosh-based Experimental Aircraft Association Aviation Foundation. Built in 1945, the airplane never saw combat in World War II and was sold as surplus in 1946. It was used as a cargo hauler, for aerial mapping and in aerial spraying.
A group of investors bought it in 1978 to restore it to military condition, and the investors donated it to the EAA in 1983. The plane is painted in the colors of the Army Air Forces' 398th Bomb Group, whose veterans helped finance its restoration. The original Aluminum Overcast was shot down over France in 1944.