Official publication of the
390th Memorial Museum
Foundation

WINTER

Liberty Belle To Fly Again

Don Brook’s 390th B-17 Report

By Robert Ginn

I was just as thrilled as anyone else when Don Brooks told assembled volunteers, staff and Foundation Board members that there would be another B-17 flying soon--and in 390th Bomb Group livery. So when I found out that the restoration was being done in Kissimmee FL, I knew I had already seen that work in progress. And now, I wanted to see the current state of the machine. For two reasons. One fairly obvious and the other not so.

Let me explain. I spent about five years at Dover AFB DE flying and instructing in C-133 aircraft. Built by Douglas and powered by Pratt and Whitney T-34 engines that were developed and tested in my old home town, Hartford, CT. The connection is that the flying test bed in the 50’s for this engine was a highly modified B-17, with the T-34 prototype engine mounted in the 17’s nose. And I had seen this odd configuration fly over my house, the test engine roaring, the four Wrights silent and motionless in the feathered position. Had I known the massive power of the T-34, I might have not wondered so.... At any rate, could these two aircraft be the same?

Yes! At least I want it to be so. The B-17 in restoration in Kissimmee had been a test bed for just such a purpose and after a little paper trail study there on the scene, I am led to believe “our” aircraft and the one I had watched in amazement about 50 years previous are one and the same.

I had to see the recent progress in Kissimmee and with Don Brooks’ blessing, I prowled about our airplane. Just look, don’t touch, I told myself. There she sits up on jacks amidst old friends and an enemy or two: a FW -190, an F-104, a Fouga Magister, several T-6 variants. Oh yes a Curtiss P-40, too. But she is gorgeous, even sans aft fuselage, outer wing sections, tail and wheels. BUT there are four installed engines and she is in a natural attitude three point. I’m told that early March is still a target date for a first flight. Now I am a pilot and not a maintainer and I like my airplanes looking like they just came out of the box--with wheels, wings, tail, the works. I do know that subassemblies out of my sight are progressing apace and all is well. So, I’m betting on this bird in March or whenever. And it will be an especial thrill to see her in the air without that ridiculous test bed nose.

Bulletin! This just in!

Don reports via E-Mail that our bird will be rolled out in January! Yes! To have the afore mentioned miscellaneous parts (wings, tail, etc) installed. And, he says, that Tom Reilly, the chief restorer is sticking to the original fly dates. Don is hoping to make a debut at the Valiant Air Command show at Tico FL on the 13th and 14th of March, paint, guns and all. Gotta put that on my calendar and reserve my daughter’s BMW in Ocala. Watch the next Bulletin for exciting B-17 news……