FLYING FORTRESS MAKES A RUN; CITY COUNCILMAN, EX-BOMBARDIER GOES ALONG ON FLIGHT

A half century ago, Melvin Kasten was a 19-year-old bombardier, dropping bombs on Nazi Germany from a B-17 Flying Fortress.

The Cape Girardeau city councilman's wartime experience came rushing back to him as he sat in the bombardier's seat in the glass nose of a restored World War II Flying Fortress as it flew over the area Friday.

The aircraft, one of two owned by the Confederate Air Force, flew into Cape Girardeau Friday afternoon. It will be on display at the airport today and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The public can tour the airplane. Cost is $3 for adults and $2 for children under 12 years of age.

The aircraft, which is based in Houston, Texas, is being displayed as part of today's open house at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

For Kasten, Friday's 40-minute flight was a trip back in time.

"It was just like years ago," said Kasten. Only this time, he wasn't dropping any bombs.

Kasten flew on 21 bombing runs with the 490th Bomb Group stationed in northeast England from 1944 to 1945. He was over Berlin on two of his bombing runs.

"I dropped the bombs," said Kasten, who would eye his target through the bomb sight in the nose of the plane.

"From 25,000 feet, I could put a bomb into a 25-foot square building," he said.

"I was a 19-year-old first lieutenant and not old enough to buy a bottle of beer," he recalled.

Making it back alive from the daylight bombing runs over Germany was a victory in itself. In one mission, only three of 13 B-17 bombers made it back to base, including Kasten's.

"We came back on one mission on an engine and a half," he remembered.

Of the more than 12,000 B-17s that were manufactured, only eight are still flying, said Ed Alksne, a member of the CAF crew from Houston.

Some 7,000 were shot down during the war, he said.

The plane was dubbed the Flying Fortress because of its size and numerous 50-caliber machine guns. It typically carried a crew of 10.

Alksne, who was an 18-year-old bombardier on another type of bomber during World War II, credits the B-17s with winning the air war in Europe.

"Whole cities were burned to the ground by these airplanes," he said.

But Alksne said the B-17 and other World War II bombers won't fly forever, despite all the maintenance and painstaking restoration work.

No new parts are being made for such aircraft, and engines can only be rebuilt so many times.

"There will come a point where we won't be able to fly them," he said. At that point, the bombers will be relegated to static, museum displays.

But for now, a few of them are still being flown.

The B-17 being displayed this weekend never saw combat. It was scheduled to be the lead aircraft in a planned invasion of Japan.

But the war ended on Aug. 15, 1945, the same day that the aircraft took off from New Jersey, bound for the Pacific.

The Confederate Air Force bought the airplane in 1967 for $50,000.

The airplane, which has been named the "Texas Raiders," has appeared in two movies. It also was featured in a commercial for MCI.

It's expensive to operate, costing about $2,000 an hour when in flight, Alksne said. The bomber typically is flown 125 to 150 hours a year.

Gulping fuel at the rate of 225 gallons an hour, the aircraft with its four, 1,200-horsepower engines can obtain a top air speed of 300 miles per hour.

Each of the engines holds 37 gallons of oil. The aircraft in flight uses about a gallon of oil for each engine every hour.

CAF crew member Roger Minson works for Southwestern Bell in Mexico City. He was among the crew members on board the aircraft when it landed at Cape Girardeau on a flight that originated in Jonesboro, Ark.

Minson's only knowledge of World War II comes from history books and his volunteer work with the CAF.

He loves everything about the old planes, from the machine guns to the ball turret.

But for veterans of the air war like Kasten, the aging bomber is grounded in memories.