Earlier this week one of my co-workers handed me an article from the Oregonian It showed a picture much like the one on the left (only better and without me in it) and I instantly knew I had to do this.Durring WW2 12,732 B-17 aircraft were made, today there are only 14 lef
t that can still fly and one of those was going to be in Hillsboro this weekend. Being the airplane nut that I am, I couldn't let the opportunity to fly in one of thes
e beautiful aircraft pass me by.
The 74' long B-17 Liberty Belle was a ton of fun to fly in. We spent approximately half an hour in the air which was plenty of time to tour the aircraft and enjoy the view of the area from the gunner positions and the cockpit.
The Liberty Belle is a restored B-17 maintained by the Liberty Foundation and has a very interesting history (http://www.libertyfoundation.org/index.html) Sold for scrap, bought by Pratt and Whitney, and partially destroyed in a tornado before being wonderfully restored this plane has had quite the post war history.
