Thursday, September 9, 2010

B-17 Flying Fortress


Sentimental Journey is a 1944 B-17 Flying Fortress that served in the Pacific theater. It did not see any action, which I dare say is one of the reasons it is still around.


The wingspan is 103 ft 9 in, and its length is 74 ft 4 in. It has a range of 3750 miles.


Sentimental Journey was prominently featured in the Steven Spielberg film 1941.


Betty Grable nose art . . . shouldn't this be on the rear of the plane?


Bombardier station and chin turret.


By the end of the war, volunteers were needed to man the ball turret. Get up close, and you can see why.


Dudeboy looking tired.


Dorsal turret . . .


Bomb bay . . . not Mumbai.


Sergeant waist gunner Dudeboy on the lookout for enemy fighters.

2 comments:

Adonis Gorr said...

The death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Dude Boy said...

Gross . . .so that's what that hose was for.