By Daniel Wolowicz danielw@theacorn.com

B-17

With unquestionable power and a noble authority, the B-17 bomber owned the tarmac like a heavyweight champ owns the ring.

The rare World War II plane made a brief appearance last week at the Camarillo Airport as part of a nationwide tour celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of the war.

Public flights on the B-17 were made possible by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), a national nonprofit organization based out of Wisconsin that celebrates aeronautical history.

The association’s Camarillo chapter helped coordinate the local stop. Money raised by the public flights covers maintenance, fuel and insurance for the plane. The remaining amount goes to Young Eagles, a flying program offered by the association to aspiring pilots and airplane mechanics.

"There are about 13 (B-17s) left flying in the world," said George Daubner, the association’s assistant director. The plane was one of 12,732 built between 1935 and 1945. They were designed by Boeing and assembled by Vega Aircraft Company, now known as Lockheed.

Completed in 1944, the plane on display did not see combat, but was instead used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during his 1946 tour of the South Pacific. It also flew Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the 1950s.

In 1986, the plane was bought by the National Warplane Museum in Big Flats, N.Y.

The museum restored and repainted it to resemble the original "Fuddy Duddy," a B-17 that was destroyed after a mid-air collision over Mannheim, Germany, on Dec. 30, 1944. Its nickname comes from the famed cartoon hunter Elmer Fudd, who’s painted on the plane’s glistening steel nose.

Because of the age of the aircraft, Daubner said handmade parts are sometimes needed. In the manufacturing of parts, mechanics must meet strict Federal Aviation Administration guidelines established for B-17s in the 1940s, Daubner said.

Originally, a full B-17 crew consisted of 10 men. It included a pilot, a co-pilot, a navigator, a bombardier, a flight engineer who was also a top turret gunner, a radio operator and four gunners. Now a team of eight pilots flies the plane in three-man crews, which rotate every couple of weeks.

"We really want to keep the pilots fresh," Daubner said, pointing out that the plane is demanding to fly and pilots must be at the top of their game when in the air.

The plane has four 1,200-horsepower engines and can climb to a service ceiling of 36,000 feet. It has a cruising speed of about 170 miles per hour. For public flights, the plane is kept below 2,000 feet , but it still packs quite a wallop when flown in low over an airfield.

However, all that power comes at a price. Daubner said the tour will cost an additional $50,000 more this year because aviation fuel costs have increased $1 per gallon since 2004. The plane will fly between 45,000 and 50,000 miles this tour.

B-17s weren’t best known for their horsepower: it was their incredible firepower which earned them the nickname "flying fortress." Armed with 13 Browning .50 machine guns and an average 8,000 lbs bombing payload, the planes were the unquestionable cornerstone of American airpower over Europe.

"They were used mainly in Europe because of their smaller fuel tanks," said Clinton Rogers, a Ventura resident, who was a gunner in WW II.

Although Rogers trained on the B-17, he served as a gunner on the larger B-29. His crew, the "Lucky Leven," was part of the 73rd Bomb Wing stationed on the island of Saipan. His crew flew 39 bombing missions over Japan and other Pacific islands, a total which is considered high by those who flew.

"One of the differences between the B-29 and the B-17 is the B-17 didn’t have a pressurized cabin," Rogers said. "It got real cold, real quick in that plane when it got high enough."

Rogers knows firsthand the dangers faced by many of the young bomber crews in WWII. He was awarded the Purple Heart after an exploding shell punctured his plane’s undercarriage and blew shrapnel through the gunner’s seat into his hip. He said if it wasn’t for a field knife on his belt, which took the brunt of the blast, his injuries might have been much worse.

Rogers returned to duty a day after being hit. He was one of two in his crew to receive the Purple Heart, and one of three alive today. Rogers was given an honorable discharge with the rank of staff sargeant after nearly three years in the service. He was returning home on a boat when he heard that the atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war.

Even though his plane the "Lucky Leven" was scrapped many years ago— it survived 60 missions —Roger still enjoys visiting old warplanes like the "Fuddy Duddy."

"When I see a plane like that I wonder where it’s been and what it’s been through," Rogers said. "You just can’t help but wonder."

For more information, call (800) 359-6217 or visit the website www.b17.org.