News All That Fits Thursday, June 26, 2014
Grandview Gal Meets Memphis Belle
Click on the video to experience takeoff in the Memphis Belle, overlooking downtown Kansas City.
By Mary Wilson
This week, I had the incredible opportunity to step back
into time and channel my inner Rosie the Riveter as I experienced the "Flying
Fortress" herself, Memphis Belle B-17. With her sleek belly, loud purrs and
tattoos of swastikas and pin-up girls, Memphis Belle is surely a sight to be
seen. While the Memphis Belle I saw on Monday wasn't used in
battle, it is the aircraft that was used in the movie Memphis Belle. She was built tough, able to withstand heavy combat
and bring her soldiers home safe. Just walking around her on the outside, I
could feel her power and authority. She means business.
The Boeing B-17 is by far the most famous bomber of World
War II. In 1934, the Boeing Aircraft Company began construction of a
four-engine heavy-bomber. Known as the Model -299, the first flight was
achieved on July 28, 1935. As a result, the U.S. Government placed an order for
production of thirteen of the aircraft and began to take delivery of the
production between January 11 and August 4, 1937. The Final B-17 production
model, the B-17G was produced in the largest quantities (8,680) than any other
previous model and is considered the definitive "Flying Fortress". During WWII, the B-17 saw service in every theater of
operation, but was operated primarily by the 8th Air Force in Europe, and
participated in countless missions from bases in England. A typical B-17 mission
often lasted for more than eight hours and struck targets deep within enemy
territory. During the war, B-17's dropped 640,036 tons of bombs on European
targets in daylight raids. This compares to the 452,508 tons dropped by the
B-24 and 464,544 tons dropped by all other U.S. aircraft. The B-17 also downed
23 enemy aircraft per 1,000 raids as compared with 11 by B-24's and 11 by
fighters and three by all U.S. medium and light bombers. There were a total of 12,732 B-17s produced between 1935 and
May, 1945. Of these, 4,735 were lost in combat. Following WWII, the B-17 saw service
in three more wars. B-17's were used in Korea, Israel used them in the war of
1948, and they were even used during Vietnam. Today, fewer than 100 B-17 airframes exist and fewer still
are in airworthy condition. At one time, more than 1,000 B-17's could be assembled
for mass combat missions. Now, less than 15 of Boeing's famous bombers can
still take to the sky.
"The minute that people start to think that this sort of
thing is boring, we have a big problem," said volunteer pilot John Ferguson. "We
need to get the word out to the public on the history of the wartime veterans
and what they did for us. If they didn't do what they did for us then, we
wouldn't be able to do this today. That's what we're all about." Memphis Belle is anything but boring. Climbing aboard
through her small door, I sat in the back of the aircraft, closest to a veteran
who remembers flying in B-17s during the war all too well. 95-year-old Jake
Simonitsch was in a B-17 during the war and was gunned down. I sat down, strapped myself in, and readied for takeoff. The
four engines roared to life, and we were on our way. The flight itself was much
smoother than I anticipated. Once we were in flight, we were able to unbuckle
and walk, sometimes crawl, through the plane. I crawled all the way to the nose of the plane, which would
have been manned by a gunner engineer to defend the aircraft from enemy fire.
The view from that seat was simply breathtaking, as we circled above Kansas
City. When finished exploring all of her nooks and crannies, and
receiving a few "souvenirs", or love bites of my own, as Ferguson calls them,
we headed back to our seats to ready for landing. Once again, I sat toward the
rear of the plane, closest to Simonitsch. He had a look of pure joy on his face
as we neared the landing strip. When the wheels touched ground, he looked at me and smiled,
giving a thumbs up. To experience something that so long ago was so prevalent
in this man's life alongside him is truly something I will never forget. "I was a navigator on one of these planes for eighteen
missions," said Simonitsch. "That eighteenth mission was when the Germans
decided I didn't need to fly anymore."
The Memphis Belle, leased by the nonprofit Liberty
Foundation, will be on display for free tours this weekend at the Wheeler
Downtown Airport, and will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, as part of the foundation's 2014 Salute to Veterans tour.
Public flights will also be available for $450, and last about 30 minutes with
nine seats available. Call 918-340-0243 to book a flight.
The volunteers with Liberty Foundation will be running the
flights and tours all weekend, and hope to keep the history alive with
donations from the public.
"We're volunteers because World War II and the airplanes
flown are in our DNA," said Ferguson. "It's why I became a pilot. This is home
This Week's JC Advocate
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