A piece of living history is coming to Seattle and you can take a ride in it! Members of the Commemorative Air Force, which has been around since the 50s, are bringing their B-17 bomber from Arizona to the Museum of Flight.
CAF Arizona’s Mike Garrett tells Northwest Newsradio their goal is to honor the sacrifices of the young men from the Greatest Generation, who flew these planes in World War Two, “to educate the folks who don’t know about World War Two and to inspire others to help preserve this memory and even come join us in restoring planes and keeping them flying.”
So how do you get parts for a 75-year-old plane? Garrett says they get creative. “We kind of scrounge around and get them,” Garrett says, “We still run turbo chargers on our B-17s. We were able to find some in France that were brand new in boxes and brought a couple of those home with us.”
Garrett says they can have the tires made, but it takes a minimum order of 50, so some of the chapters will go in together on an order and then store them, and he says there are FAA-approved parts makers. Basically, there’s a network of people and companies who can make it happen so that they can keep the planes in good working order. They’re not totally as they were during the war. Some concessions for modern equipment had made, like the radios, but Garrett says they’re pretty close.
The B-17 will be at the Museum of Flight from Wednesday afternoon August 10th through Sunday August 14th and for $475, you can take a flight on an historical treasure. Nose cone seats go for $850, but Garrett says those are already sold out – unless they sell enough tickets to open up more flights. This B-17 and another CAF Arizona plane will be in Arlington the following week. You can see more in the three videos below:
