The overpowering smell of oil and 100-octane airplane fuel entered my nostrils as I strapped myself to a cold aluminum seat. The four engines of the behemoth B-17 “Flying Fortress” roared, the propellers spun, and the cramped cabin of the thin metal plane shuddered.
Though World War II was over by the time the 15-ton “Aluminum Overcast” originally took to the skies in 1945, the aircraft provided riders with a glimpse into the realties of a wartime era for several days at the Santa Maria Airport. The bomber arrived in the city on April 25, in the midst of a 60-stop nationwide “Salute to Veterans” tour produced by the Oshkosh, Wisc.-based Experimental Aircraft Association, dedicated to building, restoring, and flying antique and homemade airplanes.
Positioned alongside an authentic flight radio, I imagined myself as an artillery gunner, fresh out of high school, praying as the plane took off for a bombing run over Europe. Noting the oil leaking from some of the plane’s many thousands of rivets, I was dubious the warbird would hold together during our short flight.
“This is one of the safest airplanes you’ll ever be in,” flight crew chief Shad Morris said in an attempt to reassure the passengers. “I guarantee you if something falls off, we’re coming back for it.”
The ride, though a bit rough on the nerves and stomach, was exhilarating. Sitting in the gunner’s chair below the cockpit, thousands of feet above the Santa Maria Valley, I gained a personal perspective of the hazards airmen must have faced during the war.
According to Roger Smith, board member with the Santa Ynez chapter of the EAA, owning a working bomber capable of flight provides the group with a means to educate the public about American history, unparalleled by any conventional method.
“You can go to museums all over this country and they have what are called static displays. They don’t move,” Smith said. “But this is living, flying World War II history. You get the smell, you hear the sounds, and all of it. To me, that’s a museum.”
During the war, Smith said, the B-17 was primarily used to conduct bombing raids over Europe, typically taking along a crew of 10 airmen, including waist gunners, a tail gunner, and a ball turret gunner.
According to Smith, the bombers typically flew in a “box” of four, completely protected from engaging enemy fighters. Though the bombers could defend themselves quite handily with their 10 different machine gun positions, they also relied on escort fighters to reach their destinations and complete their missions.
At times, Smith said, there would be hundreds of bombers in the skies over England, plus another couple hundred fighters—hence the plane’s nickname, “Aluminum Overcast.”
“It’s a World War II term,” he said. “There’re so many airplanes up there, that it’s blocking out the sun. Unless you’re in a war, you don’t see that.”
On the tarmac awaiting his turn, Wilbur Richardson prepared to take one more flight on the B-17. He’d arrived in Santa Maria that morning aboard the aircraft, traveling from the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino. A master sergeant by war’s end, Richardson flew 30 missions over 79 days during World War II, over Germany and the Axis-occupied territories.
Looking back on his experience, Richardson remembered his days as a ball turret gunner.
“You would just flow with the turn,” he recalled. “You couldn’t do much moving around in there. You’re sitting there, and whatever you were told to do, you’d just do what the turret said.”
Over the course of the next two days, the crew of the historic “Aluminum Overcast” gave rides to locals for close to $500 a ticket. Ground tours were also provided to individuals and families for $5 and $15, respectively.
Built by Lockheed Vega in 1944, one of more than 12,000 “Flying Fortresses” manufactured, the EAA’s bomber is one of only about a dozen B-17s left in the world still considered flight-worthy. After the war, most were chopped up and sold for scrap metal, while others were used for flight training, mapping, and aerial firefighting. The plane has toured the country since the late 1990s. This is flight chief Morris’ third year on the crew.
“Just like a show car, you buy the old girl, put it in a garage, start sanding it down and taking it apart, and before you know it you have a show piece,” Morris said. “I’ve been to a lot of car shows and never seen any of them run. This baby works, it runs, it flies. It’s like a street legal hot rod.”
According to Morris, though increased security issues and fuel prices have made flying the plane around the country a bit tougher, it’s all worth it in the end to honor those who fought in the armed forces.
“We do this to thank our veterans,” he said. “It’s obviously impossible for us to knock on every single door in every single community and say, ‘Hey, thanks’ [to] the veterans, so we’re covering a lot of ground by doing it like this.”
Contact Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 5-12, 2011.