Aviation News - May 2016

The experience, including start-up, lasts

30 minutes with 20 spent in the air. A trip in

the nose, which accommodates two, costs

$850 per person. The three seats in the waist

gunner section and the three in the radio

room behind the bomb bay cost $425 each.

RESTORING A CLASSIC

Having been well looked after by Aero

Union, SJ was in excellent condition when

the Confederate Air Force (later renamed

the Commemorative Air Force. The Falcon

Field operation is now CAF Airbase Arizona)

received it, but lacked the turrets and guns

it had taken to war. The Arizona Wing’s

members decided to temporarily ground SJ

until they could restore it in as close to World

War Two con guration as possible.

The CAF stripped and repainted the

airframe in the markings of the 457th Bomb

Group that was based at RAF Glatton,

Cambridgeshire, from February 1944

until April 1945. It was also reskinned

where necessary and  tted it with combat

equipment, such as a Norden bombsight, a

metal (as opposed to  breglass) chin turret, a

ball turret and a top turret.

The top turret assembly is the one feature

that CAF claims sets SJ apart from all other

airworthy B-17s. The CAF acquired it from

the owner of a petrol station in Oregon that

had an intact B-17 on its roof.

Airbase Arizona’s Chief Multi-engine Pilot,

Russ Gilmore told Aviation News: “We have

the whole mechanism inside, all the way to

the  oor. And we’re the only ones that have

it.” However, this feature is not so sought

after as it takes up a lot of room behind the

cockpit.

Airbase Arizona’s maintenance chief,

Larry Pederson, elaborated on the CAF’s

emphasis on authenticity: “Without the top

turret, we could put a couple more seats in

there and it would be a lot more comfortable

going through it, and a lot less weight. But

we feel that it’s quite important to keep it all

together.”

The aircraft wears bomb mission marks

60 Aviation News incorporating Classic Aircraft May 2016

Seen on  nal approach at Falcon Field,

Sentimental Journey wears the markings

of the 457th Bomb Group, which  ew out

of RAF Glatton, Cambridgeshire from

February 1944 until April 1945.

Apart from modern radios and GPS, Sentimental Journey’s cockpit and controls are much the same as they were in the 1940s, and the aircraft

also  ies the same. Airbase Arizona’s Chief Multi-engine Pilot Russ Gilmore said: “It’s really heavy on the controls... but it has big leverage.”

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