History Flies into Toledo for Tours, Memories
By Dennis Bova, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
Aug. 7–Gordon Lanker was back riding inside a B-17 bomber yesterday, a plane the 92-year-old Toledoan once piloted during World War II.
“The B-17 was easy to fly,” he said before boarding the bomber, which is in the area for tours and flights this week. “Easier than the B-24.”
“So many people are enthusiastic about World War II aircraft, including the B-17. It’s wonderful that so many people think it’s such a great thing to see it still fly.”
The B-17, nicknamed Aluminum Overcast, arrived at Toledo Express Airport yesterday. The B-17 is a bomber that helped win World War II in Europe largely by destroying Nazi Germany’s factories.
Its fame has been immortalized in movies, including the 1949 Oscar-winner Twelve O’Clock High and 1990′s Memphis Belle. During the war, nearly 13,000 of these bombers flew. Today, only about a dozen are still airworthy.
To keep flying, the Aluminum Overcast, a reference to its light gray aluminum skin, is on a 41-city tour. The Experimental Aircraft Association, based in Oshkosh, Wis., owns the plane and operates the tour. Toledo is the 30th stop.
The bomber will be at the Toledo Public Schools’ Aviation Center at Toledo Express Airport today and tomorrow for public tours and flights, the fees from which go toward keeping it flying.
And fly it does. Yesterday, EAA representatives took members of the media and others, including Mr. Lanker, for a mission which started at airport and flew toward just west of Delta.
On takeoff, the vibrations from the four engines of 1,200 horsepower each (a typical car engine generates about 200 horsepower) could be felt in the soles of passengers’ feet. Once airborne, the drone of the engines could be heard throughout the plane. The flight was smooth.
The crew for the day squeezed forward from the waist, or side, gun ports; between the radio and navigation stations, above which was an aft-facing opening through which passengers could raise their hand and feel the air race along at 160 miles an hour; along the catwalk between the replica bombs, then either down into the glass-enclosed nose or up onto the flight deck.
The arrival of the Aluminum Overcast drew a couple of dozen onlookers, including Robert Cordes, 16, who is about to enter his senior year at Anthony Wayne High School.
“I wanted to see what this plane is like because my grandpa flew in one,” he said. He has an interest in World War II history and aviation in general. He also is a student in the TPS aviation program, which is open to students in northwest Ohio schools.
Paul Cooper, 41, of Neapolis came to admire the plane — as well as former B-17 pilots like Mr. Lanker.
Mr. Lanker piloted a B-17 from bases in North Africa and Italy on what he said were long-range reconnaissance missions.
“I’m fascinated about this plane because it has a mystique,” Mr. Cooper said. “And that extends to the pilots and the crew. It’s one thing to see a plane like this in a museum, but to see it fly and hear its engines, it’s like music.”
With a nod to Mr. Lanker, he said having the plane and a veteran together is like living history.
From Toledo, the Aluminum Overcast flies to Harrisburg, Pa., on Thursday morning. Its next closest stop to here will be in Cincinnati on Sept. 7 and 8.
Contact Dennis Bova at:bova@theblade.comor 419-724-6164.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
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