Restored bomber a big draw at air show

~ The "Yankee Lady" has 95 percent original equipment, including a working Norden bombsight.

The stainless steel skin of the B-17 Flying Fortress gleamed in the harsh summer sun while crew members sat under the shade provided by its 103-foot wingspan.

Machine guns jutted defiantly from the front, sides, rear and from the gun turret in the belly of the four-engine bomber capable of delivering a 6,000-pound load more than 1,800 miles.

But the only assignment this crew, members of the Yankee Air Force, had was waiting for enough paying customers to put their 61-year-old warbird in the air. The Yankee Air Force, a Michigan-based group dedicated to the preservation of vintage aircraft, sends three members aloft to fly the bomber, leaving seven of the original crew seats for passengers.

The "Yankee Lady" was a big draw at the Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival, with dozens paying the $5 fee for a tour. By the time the Saturday afternoon show was ready to begin shortly after 3 p.m., six people had also paid the $425 cost of a ride in one of the most important U.S. military aircraft in history.

Building a B-17 was a labor of necessity for Boeing workers, who built more than 12,700 during the late 1930s and 1940s. But restoring this airplane, one of 13 B-17s still capable of flying, was a nine-year labor of love.

Norman Ellickson, retired from his career as director of maintenance for Northwest Airlines, led the effort. The "Yankee Lady," which had been converted to use as a firefighting plane, now has 95 percent original equipment, including a working Norden bombsight. At the time of their development, both the B-17 and the bombsight were the best in the world.

"We scoured the country for parts," Ellickson said.

Some vets leave crying

The payoff, Ellickson said, comes during air shows when aging World War II veterans approach the plane. "I have veterans come up every show," he said. "I have seen some touch the airplane and go away crying."

Those who are willing to tell stories often talk about a crash, being shot down or the death of a fellow crew member to enemy fire. "Their last experience in one was most likely a bad one," Ellickson said.

Another reaction, Ellickson said, is that veterans often say they remember an airplane that was much larger. It was, until the B-29 was developed, the largest combat aircraft in the world.

Pilot Gene Wiedekemper, who also flies passenger jets for Northwest Airlines, compared modern aircraft and the B-17. Modern planes "are quiet, they are air-conditioned, they are heated and they are pressurized," he said. "This thing is not pressurized, it is not heated, it is noisy, but it is fun."

The size of the aircraft is deceptive. Inside are cramped passageways, almost like wormholes, that have to be squeezed through to get to the bombardier compartment or the cockpit.

But for David Marshall of Old Appleton, who took his 3-year-old son, Philip, through the plane, the plane lives up to its size bill. "I never knew it was that huge," he said.

A daughter's surprise

With 20 minutes before the "Yankee Lady" was due to join other vintage aircraft and aerial acrobats in the show, Tara Montgomery was purchasing a seat on the flight for her father, William Montgomery. Cape Girardeau natives, the Montgomerys now live in St. Louis.

Montgomery, a Korean War veteran, visits the air show every year. As a youngster, he mowed the runways at the Cape Girardeau airport when it was little more than a field off Highway 74.

"This will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance," Tara Montgomery said as she prepared to surprise her father with the ride.

The elder Montgomery, a licensed pilot, jumped from his shaded seat under a tent, striding with great purpose toward the "Yankee Lady."

"This was probably the most significant plane of World War II," Montgomery said.

And it reminded him of a cousin, member of a B-17 crew shot down over Germany. The cousin had serious leg injuries that were tended to by French doctors in a German POW camp.

The cousin died last year at 94, four years after returning to France to thank the doctors who tended to him and finding one still alive, Montgomery said.

As he waited, Montgomery showed his anticipation. "I am really looking forward to this," he said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126