Aluminum Overcast On An Overcast Day

The B-17 "Aluminum Overcast"

It was just after the violent thunderstorms marched through Leesburg on Sunday afternoon, perhaps about 4:30 p.m.  I had finished updating the avionics in my airplane, and I was about to leave the airport when I remembered that the EAA "Flying Fortress" bomber from World War Two was on hand.

What an incredible piece of manufacturing history!

I am of course--like anyone is--impressed by the wartime exploits of these planes.  They made a critical difference they made in the outcome of the battle, the battle for Europe especially.

But as you walk around underneath the massive wings and admire the two enormous main gear tires, the long grey flaps, the big radial engines -- well, it impresses me to think of Rosie the Riveter and all her fellow workers making these airplanes bolt by bolt. A total of 12,732 such planes were built.  By the spring of 1944 they were producing 16 a day at the Vega (now Lockeed) plant. They knew, I guess, that the lives of young men depended on getting it right, on all the parts fitting together properly, and on the final airplane being able to withstand the force of bullets and weather.

You look at the ball turret on the tail, the one where the tail gunner rode during the missions.  There is a mannequin in there to help a visitor see how tight it was.  It must have been cold too, not to mention lonely.  I am pretty sure the tail gunner could only get in and out when the plane was on the ground.  The rest of the flight he was in there with a heck of a view but darned little connection to the rest of the crew.

Four big radial engines sit quietly today, covers on the air intake and no dripping oil in sight.  They once powered the airplane to a cruising altitude of 25,000 feet  at a cruising speed of about 170 miles per hour.

That's about equal to what my Cirrus does with a single engine and 13 gallons of fuel per hour.

I don't understand however why the Flying Fortress comes to Leesburg today, a Saturday in August, instead of during the September 29 Leesburg Airport festival and air show when there would be ten times as many people present?

People lined up to go aboard the Flying Fortress