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James Brooks photo from inside a B-1
(James Brooks / Johnson City Press)

War Birds

By James Brooks
Press Outdoors Writer
jbrooks@johnsoncitypress.com

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LEXINGTON, N.C. — “Who’s flying to Tri-Cities?” the ramp boss asked. When we raised our hands he said, “OK, your job will be to hand-prop the engines.”

The World War II B-17 bomber had not been fired up for 24 hours and its Wright Cyclone radial engines had all the oil fall into the lower cyclinders, making it necessary to turn each prop blade nine rotations to get the oil redistributed before they could be started.

He was using a rag to grip the razor edge of the prop and when it came my turn I realized why. The gigantic engines had tremendous compression and it was a real grunt to move the propeller at all. I found a face mask in my pocket and the others quickly found handkerchiefs.

Once the plane was propped we got our in-flight briefing. “Don’t talk to the flight crew. They have headsets on and are busy flying the plane. When I give you the sign, buckle your seat belts. Once we are up I’ll give you a sign to unbuckle and you are free to move about the plane.”

I found myself amidships, seated on the floor with a pad at my back. The only view was out the roof. I heard the first engine winding and then firing. The other three followed. As we taxied out the brakes squealed whenever they were applied. At the end of the runway Pilot Mac McCauley ran up each of the engines in turn before completing his checklist and swinging the lumbering bomber onto the runway.

All four engines roared and we began to move forward. Then Mac put the throttles all the way forward and the war bird shot forward, pushing me almost onto my side. Then I felt the slight shaking through the airframe that indicated we were on our way to Tri-Cities Regional Airport at about 175 mph.

The B-17 Nine-O-Nine, along with a B-24 Liberator bomber and a P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft are the war birds brought to TCRA today and Wednesday by the Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour. The planes will be on display from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. until noon on Wednesday.

I went to Lexington in hopes of riding in on the P-51 Mustang and to get some stick time during the flight, but got bumped when advance reservations to fly the Mustang came rolling in. They had six flights booked already, including one who also came to Lexington to fly the plane back. Paying customers take precedence over reporters.

That’s not to say an hour’s flight in a B-17 was any sort of a disappointment. To get through the planes you start from the seats in the waist gunner’s position. These normally open gun ports have been enclosed with plexiglass to provide a terrific view over the gun barrels. At 5,000 feet I could see cars moving along roads and I followed the plane’s shadow as it passed, wondering how many drivers looked up.

To get to the radio operator’s position you must make your way around the belly ball turret. One of the most dangerous jobs in the Army Air Corps during the war was when the ball turret gunner could not be extracted before a belly landing.

From the radio operator’s desk you cross through the bomb bay on a narrow catwalk, emerging in a head-bumping circling of the top turret’s platform, then either up to the flight deck or forward into the nose where the navigator and the bombardier held sway, each with a machine gun to fire at attacking fighters.

Here one can actually sit in the plexiglass nose, look through the bomb sight and scan the controls for air speed, heading and altitude. On a bombing run the pilot would turn control of the aircraft over to the bombardier after the navigator passed the Initial Point, or IP.

In the distance I could see the face on Grandfather Mountain, then Watauga Lake, and finally through the pass over Holston Mountain at only about 1,000 feet, before passing over Bristol and the speedway as we went back to strap ourselves in for the landing.

McCauley has been flying Nine-O-Nine for 11 years and has put in about 3,600 hours on her. He says her only bad habit is on a cross wind. The huge tail makes the bomber want to weathercock while on the runway.

“The best flights,” he said, “are with the veterans who flew the aircraft. It is an emotional experience for every one of them to fly one last mission. Most are in their 80s and 90s now, so there isn’t likely to be another chance.”

He said the most moving flight for him was when a B-17 pilot stood behind him on the flight deck and just rested his hand on his shoulder for the entire flight.

The Collings Foundation asks for a $12 donation for adults, $6 for children to tour the aircraft, including cockpit tours. Call (800) 568-8924 for information on flight experiences. All three aircraft are flown before and after viewing hours each day.

Judging from the crowd at the gate at TCRA as we taxied into place on the tarmac, the planes are going to be kept busy.