Miss Vilma and Liberty Belle

[cflord]

Pic of Miss Vilma (P-51) and Liberty Belle (B-17):



Keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down!

Ret SMSgt Cliff Lord - C-130 Flight Engineer & Mechanic

[Lewis - A2A]

Very nice image, its still hard to imagine looking up and seeing hundreds of these aircraft flying above, the noise in this neck of the woods here in East Anglia must have been crazy!

thanks,
Lewis

[Al FR-153]

Cliff.... Are you aware that the Liberty Belle caught fire and had to do a cornfield landing here in Chicago (Aurora/Oswego) back in June of 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7-pk20Wb5E I still have the tower audio of her taking off from KARR (Aurora) right before she caught fire and went down. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ijzcg8s9wfio ... e.mp3?dl=0 Originally, they said it was an engine fire, later it was said that it was a fuel leak ignited, but none the less, she burned. Disgusting part, the local fire department was afraid of getting their truck stuck in some mud, and for the most part, watched her burn. On the audio, you can hear the female ATC controller asking who was on fire. All she had to do was look out the window at the plane she just released for takeoff, and she would have known. Thankfully, everyone got out okay, except for Belle. She was a beauty....

Al

[cflord]

Yes, I do know that Liberty Belle caught fire and was destroyed a while back. There was some speculation about trying to rebuild her. I'm not sure how that is going.

Keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down!

Ret SMSgt Cliff Lord - C-130 Flight Engineer & Mechanic

[Bomber_12th]

Regarding the rebuild of "Liberty Belle", the outer wing panels, tail section, engines, propellers, and other smaller components were salvaged from the aircraft and are being incorporated into the reconstruction/rebuild of the aircraft. The very complete nose and forward fuselage section of the B-17G 44-83387 (which was formerly displayed inside a bar in Colorado for many years), was purchased by Don Brooks, the owner of "Liberty Belle", a couple years back, and it is being used in the reconstruction/rebuild of "Liberty Belle". It will fly again.

Don Brooks also owns another B-17G restoration project, also being restored to fly, which is often referred to as simply the "Labrador B-17" or the "Dyke Lake B-17", due to where it was recovered. It is an entirely separate project to that of the "Liberty Belle", and you can see some progress photos of it here (last update from Sep. 2014): http://aerovintage.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 0&start=45

[cflord]

Thank you for the rebuild info on Liberty Belle. I am so happy that she will be rebuilt and fly again. I have seen her fly several times and I would hate to see her salvaged or scraped.

Keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down!

Ret SMSgt Cliff Lord - C-130 Flight Engineer & Mechanic