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Heavy bomber sighted over South Florida


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I was walking around the lake behind my house when I heard that sound that I hear once a year. I turned around, looked up and there was the B 24 Liberator doing some low and slow lazy circles about a mile away from me.

So the wife and I hopped in the car and took a ride to Boca Raton Airport. I ponied up my $12 to get a closer look and checked out the B24, B17 and P51 parked on the ramp. They let you go inside the bombers but not the 51.

You can have a ride in the B24 if there are at least 6 paying passengers at $425 each. So I was talking with the pilot of the B24 and told him that I saw him fly over my house and he said that was because a man paid the whole $2,550 himself for a private flight so he could see fly over his golf course from the air. Not the golf course he plays at mind you, but the golf course that he owns! It must be nice to have that kind of money.

Seeing these planes on television or in the movies is one thing, but seeing them up close, being able to touch them and smell the oil dripping from the engines, walking through them and looking down the length of the fuselage really gives you a sense of their size and historical significance. It’s almost like traveling back in time when you’re walking through the bomb bay and looking at the vintage radios and other equipment. It’s great that there are people dedicated to preserving these aircraft. If you get the chance, I highly recommend going to see them.

Anyway, here are few of the 126 photos that I took. I have scaled down the resolution for practicality of uploading them. Sorry there are so many, but it was tough to pick which ones to post.

B24_Nose.jpg

B17_Plane_01.jpg

B24_Wing_B17.jpg

B17_Plane_02.jpg

B17_Nose_01.jpg

P51_05.jpg

P51_06.jpg

B17_Nose_02.jpg

B24 Interior

B24_Interior_01.jpg

B17 cockpit

B17_Cockpit_02.jpg

B17 cockpit

B17_Cockpit_03.jpg

B17 cockpit

B17_Cockpit_01.jpg

B17 bomb bay

B17_Bomb_Bay.jpg

B17 port wing poking my head out of the top of the plane.

B17_Wing_View.jpg

B17 starboard. Poking my head out of the other side.

B17_Stbd_Wing.jpg

B17_Tail.jpg

B17_Aft.jpg

B17_Forward.jpg

P51_07.jpg

B17 belly turret

B17_Belly_turret.jpg

B24 ammo box

B24_Ammo_Box.jpg

B24 Bomb bay catwalk entrance. To get in there, you have to squat down and duck. Once you're in there is only about five and a half feet of headroom. I am six feet tall. Very narrow with racks of bombs on both sides. One foot in front of the other and you must turn sideways at certain points to squeeze through. It must have been quite an experience to walk through there at altitude.

B24_Bomb_Bat_Entrance.jpg

P51_01.jpg

P51_04.jpg

P51_02.jpg

P51_03.jpg

B24 cockpit

B24_Interior1.jpg

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  On 28/01/2012 at 22:57, Sabre said:

Fantastic pictures thanks for sharing them :icon_goodpost:

Love the B17 :wub: :wub:

The B17 has always been my favorite. In fact, she just flew over my house about an hour ago. Just before dusk.

You can compare the cockpit accuracy of your A2A sim :)

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  On 29/01/2012 at 04:51, allardjd said:

EDIT: Did anyone notice that the B-17 elevator, rudder and ailerons are fabric covered?

JDA

John, you mean originally they were fabric covered, right? I was touching and knocking on all different areas and there was no fabric covering here. Take a look at these photos. Looks like riveted metal to me. I have much higher resolution photos so PM if you want to inspect them.

B17_REA_01.jpg

B17_REA_02.jpg

B17_REA_03.jpg

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No, I mean the B-17 you saw, from your fantastic photos.

 

It's a subtle thing, but if you know what to look for the fingerprint is unmistakable. There are often rivets or rib-stitches along the ribs and those add to the impression that you're looking at a metal surface. The underlying structure in these is in fact metal and the ribs are riveted to the frames that give them their shape.

 

The key to spotting the fabric covered surfaces are the reinforcing strips - a second narrow strip of fabric laid over the areas that require extra strength. If you look at them closely, they are cut with "pinking shears" which produce a sawtooth edge, to prevent ravelling. Those strips are clearly visible in some of your photos.

 

That is historically accurate. The B-17 did have fabric control surfaces, including ailerons, but the trim tabs were all metal.

 

John

 

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Here's another excerpt from one of SEATAC's photos clearly showing the "pinked" edge of a fabric reinforcing strip. That's the best example I could find in the posted photos.

 

John

 

EDIT: Not sure if I made it clear - that reinforcing strip is a second layer of fabric over the main fabric - the whole control surface (except sometimes at the edges, hinges, control horn attachments, etc.) is a fabric surface.

JDA

 

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SEATAC has uploaded some additional high-res photos for me to look at and this is the best example I can snip from one of them to clearly show the details of the technique. Note particularly the additional reinforcing strips laid up around the hinge slot in the elevator leading edge and the "covered over" appearance of the rivet or rib-stitch lines along the ribs as compared to the bare rivet heads on the metal horizontal stabilizer surface further forward.

 

Sorry to have hijacked this thread with minutia, but the technical details of these birds just get me excited every time I see them. Thanks again to SEATAC for sharing his great opportunity to access these things up close.

 

If you want to see give a warbird owner/pilot a heart attack, start pressing a fingertip on a fabric surface to prove to someone who's with you that it's really fabric. I GUARANTEE you'll get a reaction if you're spotted doing that.

 

John

 

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