Posted on 06/13/2011 5:27:01 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
The "Liberty Belle," a B-17 Flying Fortress operated by the Liberty Foundation of Florida, was destroyed by fire after the crew made an emergency landing in a cornfield in Illinois about 10 a.m. Monday morning. All seven people on board escaped without injury, according to the NTSB, but the airplane was a total loss. The B-17 had taken off from Aurora Municipal Airport near Oswego, Ill., and the pilot reported a fire on board shortly after takeoff. Several residents reported seeing the plane flying low with smoke and flames coming from it. "[The pilot] attempted to make a return to the airport, but couldn't make it so he put it down in a cornfield," local fire chief Marty Kunkel told the Beacon News. The field was about three to four miles southeast of the airport, the NTSB said.
(Excerpt) Read more at avweb.com ...
Cole Palen—who created the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome—said it’s not an airplane if it doesn’t fly.
With that mentality, he restored what is now the second oldest flying airplane in the world: Bleriot XI from 1909. I saw it fly last year.
Sorry to hear about your friend. What struck me is that my grandfather also flew C-47s in CBI theater, then flew heavies for AA out of NY. (Then he moved to Texas, DFW area specifically. He bought a few planes along the way, but nothing as big as a T-6.) He was the senior pilot at AA when forced to retire. His last flight was in a 747 to Honolulu before AA got rid of them. Wonder if he knew your Captain Hank.
I used to be a member of the Confederate Air Force. I stopped when they went politically correct.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5HfUCuUtfU
We had two B-17 pilots at the local legion..Austell 216. One recently passed. Col Weekly. He flew the Aluminum Overcast. Flew a restored Aluminum Overcast in a show with Jack Rousch.
The other is Stewart Reed. He’s still kickin.
Oh, I’ll bet. That is a pretty small pond.
Yeah, old Capt. Hank was quite a guy. Him and his pals flew airshows all over Texas. They had this tradition of “beating up the town” by doing a Dawn Patrol the day of the airshow. That fateful day, somewhere down east of Houston I forget the name, some guy had won a flight in the second seat in a contest. They were doing a 360 break preparing to land and the guy freaked out and got his feet tangled up in the controls and Hank couldn’t pull out of the descent. Drove it right in, fighting to regain control the whole time, so sayeth the FAA.
Sad day around our gang, but the man died with his boots on and that is about all you can ask for IMHO.
This looks like a place to locate warbirds:
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/
I know Geneseo, NY has some.
I used to go to the Sussex Air Show in Sussex, NJ. Great local show air - Warbirds, Leo Loudenslager, the French Connection, “The Farmer who won a free ride in a Piper Cub” Roger Lehnert.
You can still catch the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show nearby if you want to find out about why they call it the “Garden State”, but the airshow is no more, sad story.
One of those beauts flew over my house a few weeks ago.
>> “What a tragic loss of a piece American history. After 25 combat missions over Europe in WWII she has to meet her fate in an Illinois cornfield. Very depressing.” <<
.
Thank an enviro-NAZI.
They can no longer use Halon fire suppression systems in those old birds.
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