B-17 "Liberty Belle"
The 390th Bomb Group had a reunion at the National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport (KIAD) and the Liberty Belle was flown in to celebrate. The link here is the Belle is painted in the 390th's colors and was restored in memory of one of the Group's bombers.
It was cool to once again tour a flying piece of history (only about 12 B-17's continue flying) and it was made more fun to carry a couple of co-workers who had a blast seeing the plane up close. One of the guys said the -17 was his favorite plane since he was a kid and he'd never had a chance to get near one. He was almost like a kid rattling off stats and showing quite a bit of enthusiasm.
While we were standing near the rear of the plane admiring the menace of six .50-cal barrels pointing aft, I was asked by a few of the 390th's members (at least that's what their shirts said) to take their pictures. One of them said he was a tail gunner - and said he was fit there much better back then weighing 160 pounds. Another docent regaled us with the story of a former co-worker who was a bombadier during the war. He bailed out three times - twice from critically wounded Fortresses and the third from a bomber whose engines had quit but restarted as his parachute opened.
Thanks to Margy N. for putting out the word on this! It was a very nice diversion from the workday.
I posted some of my pics from the day here.