Yesterday, I finally realized my birthday present given to me by my daughter and son-in-law which was a ride on the famous WWII bomber, the B-17 Flying Fortress at the annual air show at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti , Michigan
Willow Run is also the location of the Ford Motor Company’s B-24 Liberator factory where during WWII; one bomber per hour came out the factory doors. Ford’s assembly line put out 650 planes per month and 18,400 in total.
Anyway, my first impression after climbing on board was what a sardine can. The men of that generation must have been much smaller than we are and probably much younger and skinnier because we all had problems getting around.
Couple of guys could not get to the front of the plane because they could not cross the bomb bay section which consisted of a very narrow steel path and two support beams that you had to slide sideways through; they were also very narrow.
We got to sit in all the positions, gunners, bombardier, navigator, radio man and could visit the cockpit and watch the pilots do their thing.
The plane was noisy as hell and very hot. They took off one of the plastic bubbles to allow some air circulation.
To get to the bombardier’s seat, you had to crawl below the cockpit and into the front bubble; I hit my head a number of times.
The flying fortress had guns basically on every side: back, front, below, above and on either side. I tried to imagine how things were inside when the plane was under attack by fighters like the Messerschmitt; it must have been hell.
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