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There's A B17 Buzzing My House

LBPete

LBPete

Rolling Along
Subscriber
There has been a B17 buzzing my house all day. I live in the flight path of Long Beach airport. It sucks most of the time but once in a while cool stuff flies over. Today it’s a WWII vintage B17. It has been taking off and landing all day. It flies very low, barely over the rooftops. It has a very distinctive sound. The engines don’t sound like they are much above idle speed. It has been flying off the long runway which puts its path just north of my house. About two hours ago it made a big turn and flew directly over head. Very cool to watch. If it’s still around tomorrow I’ll try to get pictures.

- Pete
 
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If it's the same one, I walked thru that plane about 10 yrs ago at an airshow in Hickory, NC. They charged 5 bucks, which went for gas & maint-those 4 big motors take a LOT of avgas. I read somewhere we couldn't duplicate what we did in WW2-turn the sky over Europe black w/airplanes, because today we couldn't afford the gas. If you get a chance, go & see it. I don't think you'll be sorry you did.-Sandy G.
 
A good quantity of B17 engines were made under license from Pratt & Whitney by Studebaker......part of that particular factory complex is currently used by Hummer (just outside South Bend).

There are a series of small strange sheds in a matrix that were used as test modules for these engines as they came off the assembly line. Ask some veterans who maintained these Stude built engines and you'll find a lot of them sing high praise for these particular versions.

Anywho, below is a pic of a B17 that I snapped last weekend at the Pacific Coast Dream Machine show in Half Moon Bay, I wonder if it's the same bird.

Anthony
 
There are two DC-3s operated by a little air cargo company that fly a milk run between the Long Beach airport and Catalina island every day. They fly over my house all the time. I always stop to watch when I hear them comming. Those radial engines have a very cool sound and it is just unbelievable that those 60 year old airplanes are still at work every day.

- Pete
 
LBPete said:
There are two DC-3s operated by a little air cargo company that fly a milk run between the Long Beach airport and Catalina island every day. They fly over my house all the time. I always stop to watch when I hear them comming. Those radial engines have a very cool sound and it is just unbelievable that those 60 year old airplanes are still at work every day.

- Pete
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Redmond Oregon has a couple B-17s that they use for fighting forrest fires. . . They drop that powder stuff on the fires. . . At least they used these planes up to a couple years ago, I would assume they still do. I was there yesterday but I did not notice them, wasnt looking either. . .

They fly a lot, not unusual to see them regularly. . . :ntwrthy:

My Dad was retired AF. . . flew 17s, 24s and 36s as a bombardier, moved into 52s untill he retired in 58 as a tail gunner. . . he had over 10,000 hours of "Combat" flying time during WWII and Korea. . .
 
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There was a DC-3 that flew canceled checks from Chattanooga to Nashville lotsa nights when I was at McCallie back in the '70s. About 11.30-BLATBLATBLATBLATBLAT-right over our heads. A helluva final note for the onetime Queen of the Skies...-Sandy G.
 
It is somewhat amazing the size difference between old and new. If I remember correctly an F15 fighter is larger than a B17 heavy bomber of WWII.
It's escort, a P51 Mustang, has been flying around here the last couple of days. Not a radial engine, but still exciting to see/hear.
Springfield Air Rendezvous is going on right now. They have a Heritage In Flight performance where they have a P51,an F4 Phantom and an F15 Eagle all flying together. Very cool :thmbsp:.
Also an F4U Corsair, but not flying with them. And the headliners, the Navy Blue Angels.
Tried to attach a picture of them but picture too large :scratch2:
Old or new warbirds are very cool.
 
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Yesterday at the air show, the Blue Angels did a demo of their support aircraft Fat Albert, which is a C130 with JATO bottles on it. When it banked to come around in what they called a " minimum radius turn" it was almost 90 degrees to the ground. Really get an idea about wingspan looking at that. Can't imagine what a 747 would look like in a barrel roll :jawdrop:
I wouldn't mind being on board for that also. :thmbsp:
 
Nothing like the sound of a multi-engine recip. If that B-17 has been taking off and landing all day, they're probably hauling passengers at over $275 a pop.

There's a good book out there about 130's. I think it's called "Herky Bird" or something like that. It seems one test involved one taking off from a carrier. They kept on doing it until the aircraft was 10,000lbs. over its max design gross weight. I don't know if the carrier was steaming max speed into a hellacious headwind or what, but a 130 leaving a carrier is goddamn impressive in my book. I don't recall the use of JATO bottles for that test either.
 
Can't imagine what a 747 would look like in a barrel roll

I recall seeing a video of a test pilot who did that some years ago. IIRC he was sacked for the stunt.
 
The B17 is back. I flew by a couple of minutes ago. I'm going to set up a camera and see if I can get a picture.

- Pete
 
Boeing builds the C17 transport here at the Long Beach airport. They fly over on their maiden flights. That makes me a little nervous but they all seem to make it. It’s an impressive airplane too.

- Pete
 
Unless they have repainted it army green, it's not that one. Unfortunately It doesn't seem to be flying today. It went by once this morning and I haven't seen it since. I've got a camera on tripod that has been bleaching in the sun all day.

- Pete
 
Speaking of B17s being used to fight fires.....the Confederate Air Force's 'Sentimental Journey' was built too late to see any action and instead spent it's professional life as a firefighter. Someone mentioned P51's....they weren't radial engines, the are V12's built on an origial Rolls Royce Merlin design but perfected and mass produced by Packard......VERY long story behind this engine and Packard's involvement.

Never saw a 747 perform any snazzy maneuvers other than to watch them do touch and goes at Bangor back in the early 70's. This is (or was) the longest runway on the east coast and was originally a military base, although at the time it was partially transformed to commercial.....and was used by the airlines to train their pilots. You ain't seen nuthin till you see a 747 float gracefully down, touch gear, and then roll on full throttle! Like watching the circus fat lady dancing like a ballerina.
 
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