http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-N ... y-landing-outside-Chicago

B-17 crashed and burned outside of Chicago.

yea... I got that from a friend via email and wasn't able to post it here at that time...

A real shame. The important part, the crew is all ok.

And it looks like the engines are salvageable.

Last I heard there were only 13 of those planes still worthy of flight. I would like to know how many were built total just to compare.

Now down to 12. Such a beautiful craft...such a tragedy.

Quote:

12,731

I know the Commemorative AF has a few... There is one sitting in Wright Patterson AFB museum that is airworthy, but they won't fly her anymore. I helped restore her, Shoo-shoo-baby is her name. She is a B17G. They brought the broken plane to Dover AFB and I got to volunteer during my senior year of HS.

Collins aviation in FL has one each B17 and B24. There is a group in NY that has one each, also.

The CAF also has a flying B29.

An aside... IIRC, the documentary was talking to the guy in charge of Collins Aviation.

This was on cable a few years back.

However, the nose cone on their B-17 was cracked. It is this massive one piece clear plexi of some sort. Well, the tag was still on the piece, so they reached out to the mfg from 1944! Shockingly, they were still in business! Even more shockingly, they STILL HAD THE MOLDS! For whatever reason, they felt it was important enough to hold on to the molds.

Well, they tried to order a nose cone. The company said, and I paraphrase from memory, "well, they are expensive, if you can get a few friends in, the more we make, the cheaper they get." So Collins gets on the horn and gets his friends to all buy 2. Now they have an order!

A few weeks later, they all had brandy-new nose cones!

It's been on the news here all day. What a shame.

Matthew

That's the problem with flying history, sometimes shit happens......so glad they all got out. My Dad flew B17's in the war.

I for one am not so sure the plane is a total write off. While they might do just that, I saw the P38 lightning that was found in a glacier as a crushed, somewhat two dimensional remnant. When I saw it in '03, it had been flown to the general aviation section of Dayton Int'l Airport for the Dayton Air Show. The next week, it flew back home to Kentucky. So if that plane could be restored, I'd bet the B-17 could be as well. I didn't see any videos of it and not too many pics, but, fwiw, that's my .02.

Bob - I hear ya... but I don't know if the money is there to rebuild. That P-38 cost some $3m to restore. They had to make just about every piece of aluminum again... very little was safe from that crusher.

Oh NO!