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Kansas City, MO —
Oh, just look at her.
Just really look at her.
The stately wings, the proud nose. The aquiline body full of curves.
Jim Jarvis of North Kansas City saw her sitting on the tarmac at Charles B. Wheeler Airport in Kansas City on Monday afternoon. She was so unexpected to his eyes that he just had to stop and look at her through the chain-link fence.
She was so close yet so far away.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, better known as the Liberty Belle, sat contentedly under the warm sun. Next to her was a Curtis P-40E Warhawk, newly restored and it, too, proud and stately.
Oh, what Jarvis – and others along the fence – would do if only he could ride it once.
Just once.
“I was just driving by on my way to get some Mexican food and there she was,” Jarvis said. “Had to see it.”
Nearby, another North Kansas City resident who asked not to be named because he was taking an “extended lunch,” hooked his fingers on the fence and leaned into it. Like a small boy who can’t get in to the ballgame.
“I still have goose bumps,” he said. “These things – when you think of all the men who died serving in them … it humbles you. I saw it sitting there and had to look. I’m an engineer, and I love the detail.”
Both aircraft are ready and waiting for all those willing to fork over some dough on Saturday and Sunday. For $430 per person, you can experience what it must have been like for the hundreds of men who served overhead during World War II.
John Reynolds, a Lake Lotawana resident who served in the U.S. Army’s 1st Calvary in the South Pacific, took his first ride in the aircraft on Monday. A Purple Heart recipient for a bayonet injury, Reynolds was in awe of the machine.
“It’s something,” he said.
Monday was his 89th birthday, and he considered it a pretty good present.
What he would like most for future birthdays, however, isn’t another airplane ride – not even in a B-17. He said continued education in the United States about World War II is needed, especially Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb.
“A lot of education is putting a lot of the blame on us,” he said. “If Truman hadn’t did what he did, a lot more lives would’ve been lost.”
Oh, just look at her.
Just really look at her.
The stately wings, the proud nose. The aquiline body full of curves.
Jim Jarvis of North Kansas City saw her sitting on the tarmac at Charles B. Wheeler Airport in Kansas City on Monday afternoon. She was so unexpected to his eyes that he just had to stop and look at her through the chain-link fence.
She was so close yet so far away.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, better known as the Liberty Belle, sat contentedly under the warm sun. Next to her was a Curtis P-40E Warhawk, newly restored and it, too, proud and stately.
Oh, what Jarvis – and others along the fence – would do if only he could ride it once.
Just once.
“I was just driving by on my way to get some Mexican food and there she was,” Jarvis said. “Had to see it.”
Nearby, another North Kansas City resident who asked not to be named because he was taking an “extended lunch,” hooked his fingers on the fence and leaned into it. Like a small boy who can’t get in to the ballgame.
“I still have goose bumps,” he said. “These things – when you think of all the men who died serving in them … it humbles you. I saw it sitting there and had to look. I’m an engineer, and I love the detail.”
Both aircraft are ready and waiting for all those willing to fork over some dough on Saturday and Sunday. For $430 per person, you can experience what it must have been like for the hundreds of men who served overhead during World War II.
John Reynolds, a Lake Lotawana resident who served in the U.S. Army’s 1st Calvary in the South Pacific, took his first ride in the aircraft on Monday. A Purple Heart recipient for a bayonet injury, Reynolds was in awe of the machine.
“It’s something,” he said.
Monday was his 89th birthday, and he considered it a pretty good present.
What he would like most for future birthdays, however, isn’t another airplane ride – not even in a B-17. He said continued education in the United States about World War II is needed, especially Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb.
“A lot of education is putting a lot of the blame on us,” he said. “If Truman hadn’t did what he did, a lot more lives would’ve been lost.”
The Liberty Belle is one of only 14 B-17s that still fly today, said officials with the Liberty Foundation, a nonprofit organization that takes these types of aircraft to cities throughout the country and gives people the chance to see them up close and personal.
While a trip on either aircraft is a bit costly (a ride in the P-40 is $1,050), people can come to the airport and look for free. Donations are encouraged, however.
Ray Fowler, a pilot and member of Liberty Foundation, said the cost of flying the aircraft justifies the high ticket price.
“To fly the B-17, it costs about $4,500 per hour, and the P-40 is about $2,000 an hour,” Fowler said, adding that the foundation spends about $1.5 million annually to keep the aircraft airworthy and on tour.
But the experience, he said, is worth it – it gives one perspective and a true appreciation of the men who fought in them. Another foundation member called a ride in the B-17 an “assault on the senses.”
“They are a living museum in the sky,” Fowler said.
The Liberty Belle was constructed during the end of the war, and it saw no combat. It was built and painted to resemble the original Liberty Belle, which flew countless missions with the 390th bomb group of the 8th Air Force.
Sold as scrap in 1947 to a mining company, the aircraft was then sold to Pratt and Whitney for $2,700. In 1968, it was donated to the Connecticut Aeronautical Historic Society, where it appeared safe and sound. Eleven years later it was damaged in a tornado.
In 1987, it was acquired by a Florida enthusiast who wanted to restore it. But in 1992, fate took over when Don Brooks of the Liberty Foundation purchased it, decorating it to resemble the original Liberty Belle his own father flew in as a tailgunner.
On Dec. 8, 2004, following a 14-year restoration effort, the aircraft took to the skies.
Each year is a struggle for the foundation, Fowler said, but each year they continue flying the plane. He said the group never breaks even, but the importance of letting the public see and touch and fly in the aircraft outweighs the financial hardship of operating them.
“In the future, these aircraft will be in museums,” Fowler said.
For more information about Liberty Foundation, visit www.libertyfoundation.org. For information about the weekend event, call the airport at 513-0800.
