willysmb44 Posted August 21, 2008 Share #1 Posted August 21, 2008 I found a disk of some photos while looking for something else, and it had photos I'd totally forgotten about and thought someone might find them interesting. The "Boeing Bee" was used in many WW2 movies, and was last used in "Memphis Belle" as the only real F model in the film. It belongs to the Seattle Museum of Flight now, but is in limbo in a hangar at Boeing Field and rarely ever seen by anyone other than Boeing employees. In 2003, they celebrated it's 60th 'birthday.' It was a day-long event when the plane was still in Renton. There really wasn't that big a crowd at the time. I don't recall if it was an invite-only event or just another one of the Museum's infamous "you have to be in the loop to know about it" things as I was a museum member at the time and knew nothing about it other than the invite to show up with my AAF bomber crew rig. My living history group went there for that event and we had ten guys outfitted in WW2 flight gear (only myself and two of the others were in full equipment to include parachutes, though) and another in Class As. We stood for group shots in front of that plane for probably at least half an hour. Outfitted with all that gear as I was, I didn't get a lot of detail photos of the interior but I did get inside and roam around after the crowd dispersed. Here's a couple of shots from that day. In the first one, I'm the guy to the far right. In the sceond one, I'm far right, front row. There's no timetable for getting this into the public eye. They also have a combat veteran B-29, the one that used to sit at Lowrey AFB near Denver, going through restoration as well, and will supposedly have fuly operational gun turrets when they're done. Neither will ever fly again, even though the 17 is certainly airworthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobgee Posted August 21, 2008 Share #2 Posted August 21, 2008 Excellent! thanks for posting........Love them Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses! Bobgee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johan Willaert Posted August 21, 2008 Share #3 Posted August 21, 2008 Absolutely love those planes... At the controls of Sally B, about 20 years or so ago... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted August 21, 2008 Share #4 Posted August 21, 2008 Thanks for posting these pictures. A rarity for sure, it's a shame that hardly no one gets to see it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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