B-17 crash in the US

[aeropilot]

Great skill to get her down for the whole crew to get out, such a shame for Don Brooks. At least he got to do his wish and bring her over to the UK and tour the original Belle's bases etc. IIRC wasn't his father a crew member on the original wartime Liberty Belle...?

Remarkable that the the last two B-17's totally destroyed by fire in a similar way have both involved no crew fatalities.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but, but if they'd bellied her in with gear up, with the fire on the wing underside, the dirt/dust on touch down might have gone some way to help extinguish the under wing flames, rather than allowing the fire to burn from air underneath with the a/c on it's gear.

[mrloudly]

To be fair they still build "New" ones. Was amazed to see one in "Production" at "Tom Reilly's" Warbird base at Kisimee Municipal airport.

I think they class about 10% input of original parts as a "restoration"!!!

[aeropilot]

mrloudly said:

To be fair they still build "New" ones. Was amazed to see one in "Production" at "Tom Reilly's" Warbird base at Kisimee Municipal airport.

I think they class about 10% input of original parts as a "restoration"!!!

The critical original part being the centre box wing spar section.... as I understand it, 'new build' is new build build around an original centre section spar, as was done by Tom Reilly with 'Liberty Belle'.
Sadly, there's now nothing left of Liberty Belle to resurrect as a new build.

[Hooli]

Now that's a sad sight

[molineux1980]

A sad sight. I can't believe how badly its burnt up.

[Graebob]

That's really sad

[Eric Mc]

Just back from hols and what a sad piece of news to find out on my return.

There will always be the possibility of these types of events happening - but the good news is that everyone survived.