Adopted B-17G - 91stBG 323rdBS "Nine-O-Nine"

[oboe]

Boeing B-17G-30-BO 91st BG 323rd BS 42-31909, "Nine-O-Nine", RAF Bassingbourn, 1945.    This was one of Kev367th's AHII B-17Gs.   

Part of the 91st Bomb Group, this Flying Fortress went on to complete a record tally of 140 missions without an abort or loss of a single crew member.  Starting operations in February 1944, her first bombing raid was on Augsburg, Germany, on February 25, 1944.  She flew 18 bombing raids on Berlin.  By April 1945, “Nine O Nine” had flown an extraordinary 1,129 hours.  M/Sgt. Rollin L. Davis, maintenance line chief of the bomber, received the Bronze Star for his role in achieving the record.   In all she flew 1,129 hours and dropped 562,000lb of bombs. "Nine-O-Nine" returned to the United States after the war in Europe finished, on June 8, 1945. She was sent to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation facility at Kingman, Arizona on December 7, 1945, and eventually scrapped.

The Collings Foundation of Stow, Massachusetts, flew a B-17G painted as a "tribute ship" to honor the original Nine-O-Nine at airshows and for "living history" flights, from 1986 until October 2019.  On the morning of October 2, 2019, she crashed at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, while attempting to return shortly after takeoff.  The aircraft was destroyed in the crash, and seven of the thirteen people on board were killed.  The National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation and in April 2021 released a report citing pilot error as the likely cause, with inadequate maintenance as a contributing factor.

I used to see this B-17 regularly, as our airport seemed to be on the Collings annual circuit.  She was beautiful in the air.  The low rumble of her 4 radials was so distinctive as she made her way low along the Front Range - giving rides I suppose.

[swareiam]

 

[Devil 505]

Beautiful job.

[Vraciu]

Nicely done.

[lyric1]

 

[Greebo]

Really good job Oboe, beautiful skin.

[oboe]

Thanks guys.

I have this memory of her I'd like to share.  One Saturday morning a few years ago (2018 or '19, I suppose), I heard the low rumble of her engines as she made her way south along the Front Range.  I imagine they fly this route because it gives passengers a great view - looking out one side of the bomber, you'd see rolling plains and grassland, and out the other - the peaks, parks and canyons of the Rocky Mountains.   

Anyway, a mother and young son were out walking that morning on the sidewalk across a field from our house as "Nine-O-Nine" hove into view.  I remember hearing the little guy's shriek of amazement and wonder as the B-17 passed by, very nearby and low to us.   It literally stopped him in his tracks.    Such was the power of this still-mighty aircraft.   A young child with no knowledge of WWII, or the air power of that age, is absolutely awestruck when he sees one in its element - rumbling along low in the sky.  A big, loud airplane with 4 propeller engines, painted grey and green, and decorated with large identification letters on the fuselage, and colored wingtips and tail.   Nothing like the usual white-painted single or twin engine civilian aircraft we're accustomed to seeing.

I can only imagine what the English youth of the day thought as they watched dozens of Fortresses take off, form up and head off to some Axis target, or return after a mission.   The sound of all those old Wright Cyclones must've been incredible.