B-17 "Liberty Belle" leaving USA & grounded? (

[Robbie Roberts]

Does anyone know anything about this? It was receive through another group...

Robbie


http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/372010.html
 
B-17 may be on a farewell mission
Flying Fortress to fly customers Saturday
By Tom Buckham NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/17/08 7:05 AM


 




Charles Lewis/Buffalo News
Ray Fowler, a captain with Liberty Foundation, flies the Liberty Belle on Monday during a media flight.
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BUFFALO NEWS VIDEO: Riding along with the Liberty Belle

Take a good look at Liberty Belle winging overhead Saturday on its latest visit to the Niagara Frontier. Ride along for the spectacular view if you can afford the $430.
Might be your last chance.
The restored B-17 Flying Fortress survived a 1979 tornado that flipped another airplane on top of it, destroying its midsection, but high fuel and insurance prices may ground it forever once the current 50-city U. S. tour ends this weekend in Buffalo and Rochester.
It is due to fly across the Atlantic next month, following the route used to deliver B-17s to Europe during World War II, but after that all bets are off on future flights.
The four-engine bomber is relatively fuel-efficient. The 1,700-gallon fuel load goes a long way at the usual cruising speed of 150 to 160 mph, Capt. Raymond Fowler pointed out Monday after parking the 34,000- pound aircraft at the Prior Aviation terminal at Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
But at a cost of $1 million a year to fly, and $100,000 to insure, vintage warplanes like Liberty Belle are becoming too expensive for the aficionados who own them — in this case the nonprofit Liberty Belle Foundation of Douglas, Ga.
Only continued public interest in the historic plane, and people’s willingness to pay for the half-hour flights, will keep it in the air, said Fowler, the foundation’s chief pilot, before taking a group of reporters and photographers up for a spin. He kept a safe distance from a line of thunderstorms that blackened skies over northern Erie and Niagara counties in midafternoon.
One of the last of more than 12,000 B-17s built by Boeing during the war, Liberty Belle never saw combat and was named for a famed Flying Fortress that flew countless missions as part of the 8th Air Force’s 390th Bomb Group.
Like many out-of-work warplanes, it was sold for scrap in 1947 but was saved from the junk heap, used as a test craft for turboprop engines, bought by a Connecticut historical airplane group and nearly trashed by the tornado before it was rescued by Don Brooks, a Floridian whose father had been a tail gunner on the original Liberty Belle.
Brooks started the Liberty Foundation, which over 14 years restored the craft to its wartime configuration. It started flying in 2004 and first visited Buffalo a year ago.
Military aviation history met the present for a brief moment as Liberty Belle departed for the media flight.
The 1940s bomber and the Navy’s famed Blue Angels precision flying team passed each other on the taxiway. The seven distinctive blue-and-gold jets dropped down briefly to refuel at Prior Aviation on the way home from a Canadian air show, the company said.
Unlike Fowler, the Navy pilots needn’t worry about how much fuel those high-performance engines burn, or what it costs.
Liberty Belle flights will be offered from 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. Saturday at Prior Aviation, on North Airport Drive off Aero Drive. Additional flights will go up Sunday from Rochester Airport. Call (918) 340-0243 for reservations.
tbuckham@buffnews.com

[Randy Haskin]

Looks to me like they're just saying they need more money to keep flying.

No big surprise.

[mustangdriver]

They just made a killing in Pittsburgh, PA

[warbird1]

Looks to me like they're just saying they need more money to keep flying.

No big surprise.

I agree. It's the standard PR that organizations will tell the public in order to help ensure their self-preservation. It's kind of what like PBS does. They constantly have to nag and nag the public for money or else threaten that they will shut down. It's nothing abnormal at all. I don't see anything here different from any other organization. All of them, the CAF, POF, etc., say the same song and dance. It's necessary rhetoric in order to survive.

[Robbie Roberts]

So it is basically truth, with some hype, to keep funding coming in, and everything will be ok? I thought it might be that...

Robbie

[bdk]

All of them, the CAF, POF, etc., say the same song and dance. It's necessary rhetoric in order to survive.

I've never gotten a "donate or we're out of business" mailing from POF. Every non-profit has to make donation requests as a source of income. I suppose that fear mongering is one way of doing it. I don't think I'd donate to a group that was on the verge of going under every year myself. Sounds like a waste of money to me on an organization that may not have long-term viability.

[Chuck Giese]

So it is basically truth, with some hype, to keep funding coming in, and everything will be ok? I thought it might be that...

Robbie

Some truth, some hype, plus add in some reporter exageration/misinformation/misinterpretation. I can't wait to tell Mr. Don that he's now a Floridian. That Dawg won't hunt!

[warbird1]

All of them, the CAF, POF, etc., say the same song and dance. It's necessary rhetoric in order to survive.

I've never gotten a "donate or we're out of business" mailing from POF. Every non-profit has to make donation requests as a source of income. I suppose that fear mongering is one way of doing it. I don't think I'd donate to a group that was on the verge of going under every year myself. Sounds like a waste of money to me on an organization that may not have long-term viability.

Okay, so maybe I overstated it a bit. But every organization basically says the same thing - that without donations, the airplanes might not keep flying. You're right, the POF doesn't do it to the extent that others do, however.

[hang the expense]

Typical "if it bleeds it leads" nonsense from the lib reporter.Hope they have fun going over the pond.

[Randy Haskin]

So it is basically truth, with some hype, to keep funding coming in, and everything will be ok? I thought it might be that...

Robbie

Some truth, some hype, plus add in some reporter exageration/misinformation/misinterpretation. I can't wait to tell Mr. Don that he's now a Floridian. That Dawg won't hunt!

Thanks for that perspective, Chuck.

Do you live in Douglas (or that area) now?

[Chuck Giese]

Do you live in Douglas (or that area) now?

Yes, I moved to Douglas a little over two years ago to work on the Labrador B-17. The last year or so has been devoted to the P-40, we'll start back up on the B-17 once the P-40 flys.

I thought this topic seemed familiar, so I went through the archives and found something similar from two years ago: http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... php?t=8264

[Iclo]

Hello Chuck,

What is the current state of the "Labrador" B-17 ?

Regards,

[Chuck Giese]

Hello Chuck,

What is the current state of the "Labrador" B-17 ?

Regards,

No work has been done on the Labrador B-17 in the past year. Once I get back on it, I'll start a thread in the 'Maintenance Hanger', along with pictures.

Quick status: The fuselage has been deconstructed according to the Reilly method. All skins were drilled off and duplicated. The longerons, stringers and ribs will have to be replaced, so I left them in sections where possible. Bulkheads 4 & 5 (bomb bay) and the associated heavy structure was drilled apart and sand blasted. New carry-through spars for bulkhead 4 & 5 have been machined. Don picked up a set of horizontal stabs from somewhere, and has sent them out to be rebuilt.

[Bill Greenwood]

I took a United flight out of Buffalo Wed afternoon at 2:19. As we taxied into position I saw out the right side Liberty Belle at Prior Aviation. It sure added some class to a ramp full of transportation airplanes. I wanted to reach out and pet it sort of like a golden retriever.
I will have to give the airlines credit for being safe and usually reasonably priced, but they sure aren't fun. I'd be embaressed to give what they call a snack to a street person. I got back to Denver about 6pm, but felt like I had been shipped in an aluminum tube with other sardines. No exaggeration, there is more leg room in a Spitfire than my seat in 26F. What a shame that for most people an experience like that is what they call flying and all they know of airplanes.

[Broken-Wrench]

What get's me is that people call that flying! It's horrible!