At the beginning of the film, a B-17 returning from a World War II mission makes a low pass over the Memphis Belle’s aircrew playing touch football at their base, signaling the return of the squadron. The beautiful shape and proportions of the B-17 and the unmistakable sound of those four Wright R-1820 engines thundering over me in the theater made the most indelible impression, and my love for aviation began at that very moment.

In spring 1991, David Tallichet, the pilot/owner of N3703G, one of the B-17s flown in the film—the other was Sally B—brought it to Concord Municipal Airport (KCON), and I waited in line one rainy afternoon to tour the interior with my mother and grandfather, all three of us climbing up the steep ladder into the hatch located below the cockpit on the pilot’s side. One of my favorite early memories was pausing with my grandfather behind the pilot’s seat as he patiently answered my questions about the dizzying array of instruments, levers, and switches in the cockpit. As a boy, it looked impossibly complicated, but I was intensely fascinated.

• READ MORE: Taking a Virtual Flight with the Yawman Arrow

After the tour, I purchased a poster at the souvenir stand that Tallichet politely signed for me. At nearly 70, he was gallant in both appearance and manner and spent some extra time with my grandfather and I, taking us around the exterior of his B-17 while he and my grandfather compared notes on their flying experiences. During WWII, Tallichet was a copilot of a B-17 in the 8th Air Force, completing 20 missions. After the war, he became a successful businessman and amassed an impressive personal collection of military aircraft.

Before we departed his company, Tallichet asked if I wanted to fly when I grew up, and I automatically answered yes. Standing between him and my grandfather, who wouldn’t aspire to what each had accomplished as pilots? That poster with his autograph hung in my childhood room until I went to college.

After that close encounter with the movie Memphis Belle on the ramp, I drove my friends and family crazy by asking to rent the film at least once per month, watching it until I could recite most of the dialogue with my sister. Without YouTube in the mid-’90s, there was no easily accessible footage of what it looked like to fly a B-17 from the pilot’s seat, so I repeatedly rewound the videocassette to watch the flying sequences to try and understand how it all worked. In 1993, a friend of mine in the neighborhood heard me talking about the movie and invited me over to his house after school. He owned an early PC with a color monitor and had a copy of the recently released combat flight simulation called B-17 Flying Fortress: World War II Bombers in Action by MicroProse. This was my first flight sim experience of any kind, and I had so much fun trying to fly the B-17 that I didn’t move from the cockpit to try the other crew positions. The cockpit and the gunner stations on the bomber were faithfully modeled as much as was possible at the time. For example, in the waist gun position, you could look toward the front of the B-17 and see the wings, round engine nacelles, and propellers spinning. Your role in one of the gunner positions was to defend the Flying Fortress from attacking enemy fighter aircraft. All of this sounds rudimentary today, but the missions, crew stations, and color animation were created in the early 1990s.

Experiencing the B-17 combat simulator came at a critical and impressionable time in my childhood, and I can still remember the thrill. In speaking with many pilots I have met over the years, a lot of us had a chance to try a home flight sim that served as a connection and an on-ramp to the larger world of aviation. For me, using a flight sim was a lot of fun, and it only made me more excited to try my first real-world flight lesson when I turned 14.

Back during the late ’90s, Chris Palmer—aka @AngleofAttack and a CFI who now runs a successful general aviation training business and popular aviation YouTube channel from his home airport in Homer, Alaska—started flying the European Air War WWII combat simulator. Palmer remembers learning the basic flight and power controls and the thrill of flying a fighter aircraft over the English Channel to challenge the Germans in air-to-air combat. As a teen, he purchased Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) and dreamed of becoming an airline pilot. He would load an airliner into the simulator and enjoy departing from many of the major airports around the world contained in the title’s library.

That early exposure inspired him to pursue real-world flight training. By the time he turned 17, Palmer started ground school and had already learned radio communication basics from the hours he spent on VATSIM, the live air traffic control service staffed by trained volunteer controllers that can be layered into a home flight sim with a software plug-in. After learning how to edit highlight videos for his high school football team, he built a study-level training course on how to fly the Boeing 767 on FSX. These video lessons achieved scale and, 17 years later, the DVDs, which complement a professional ground school study program, are selling to aspiring pilots training for their next upgrade.

When I came back to the world of GA to finish attaining my private pilot certificate in 2010, there was nervousness about the coming pilot shortage. Articles on the topic abounded, and writers made educated guesses about from where the next wave of pilots would come.

The question poised at that time was could enough discovery or EAA Young Eagles flights be conducted to successfully introduce the next generation to general aviation in time to stave off the looming airline pilot retirements not too many years in the future.

In 2014, I changed jobs into a marketing position where I could combine my passion for GA with my skill set as a social media marketer tasked with representing a leading general and commercial aviation product. Around this time, YouTube’s user base was rapidly expanding in popularity, and aviation enthusiasts could follow pilots on journeys from their first training lessons all the way to the airlines. Some pilots such as @flightchops (Steve Thorne) and @steveo1kinevo, who had modest followings of around 30,000 subscribers at that time, would amass hundreds of thousands of them over the next few years as their content attracted aviation enthusiasts from all over the world.

Today there are popular pilot/content creators who have used their engaging videos to help bring pilots of all ages to the airport for their first flight lessons. YouTube and the other social media channels have connected a global audience made up of millions around the world to pilot content creators with the time, equipment, and capability to publish their flying stories and share the world of GA with new, ever-widening, and more diverse global audiences through the mysterious and perplexing magic of the algorithm.

Fast-forward to this summer, and Jorg Nuemann, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, presented to a large, in-person audience in June at FlightSimExpo, where he shared that MSFS2020 had achieved more than 12 million individual users since the software launched in September 2020. With the recent launch of X-Plane 12 in 2022, and the continued growth in popularity of Digital Combat Simulator (known as “DCS” and featuring modern fighter and rotor wing aircraft), each software program continues to attract a specific segment of digital aviation enthusiasts. Acknowledging that there is some crossover of home flight simulation pilots between these popular software titles, each offers a digital aviation experience where the user can hop over the virtual airport fence and climb into the cockpit or flight deck of so many faithfully digitally created general, commercial, and military aircraft.

Taken together, these software titles have amassed a worldwide user base on a scale not seen before. The result is YouTube and flight simulation are introducing enthusiasts to the world of aviation by serving as the top of a giant funnel, bringing the user into digital aircraft that are visually accurate to their real-world counterpart complete with high fidelity systems modeling. I believe the next generation of pilots is already here. They are fluent users in the digital world, easily finding flight simulation and aviation video content online.

Although we may not see them at real-world GA airports yet, I am already flying with them in the flight sim club of which I am a member. Listening to their radio calls approaching the Boston Class Bravo airspace, these flight sim pilots, many years my junior, are flying digital airliners into KBOS executing complex IFR arrivals with crisp and professional radio communication. Any of these flight sim pilots could show up to their first real-world discovery flight and surprise their unsuspecting CFI by being able to file and read back an IFR clearance without a single hour in the real-world logbook. Although these students will be well prepared in some aspects of flight training, they will have areas where the flight sim experience can’t adequately do so. But I’m confident a capable CFI will be able to diagnose any weaknesses and bring the student up to the relevant test standards.

To check that assumption, I asked Palmer about his thoughts on home flight-sim use and how it could potentially complement real-world flight training. As an experienced CFI who has successfully trained many private pilots, I wondered if he had any concerns about flight students crossing over from the digital world of flying into the real world—specifically the cross-country stage of private pilot training.

“If flight sim is used in the correct way, it can help you advance your flight training,” Palmer said. “There are more advantages than disadvantages. For example, you can easily mix pilotage and dead reckoning to practice navigation skills. You can plan the flight, get the

exact winds, get the exact weather, and set the correct time of day. Putting that high-fidelity tool in the hands of a student will allow them to find the airport, and [so] on their first cross-country flight, it doesn’t have to be a surprise anymore.”

Within the MSFS2020 and X-Plane 12 software, the student can explore most local airports since they are nearly all modeled. If the student pilot already has ForeFlight, they can pair their tablet with the sim and use it to find the FBO and plan the radio frequencies and approach to the airfield. Even just being able to explore the basics of ForeFlight while on your home sim can be time well spent.

“If you approach the sim seriously, and fly it to a high fidelity, it will pay you dividends by helping you feel more prepared for your private pilot flight training,” Palmer said.

In terms of behaviors to watch, Palmer cautions the new student to be ready to practice converting some of the flight sim knowledge into the real world, including getting used to the traffic scan since that is a habit not readily practiced in the sim. Simply recognizing there will be areas to relearn in actual flight training is the first step.

Equipped with their many hours of flight simulation experience, the student may already have a strong understanding of airspace, communication, navigation, and checklist use but may require some fine-tuning by their CFI.

“There’s nothing like real flying, no matter how much flight sim time you have,” Palmer said. “Go try flying a real airplane. You’re one of us. You like flying things. I am passionate about it, and I want flight sim pilots to experience real-world flight. Take a few discovery flights and see where it leads. At the very least, a real instructor can provide feedback and lesson pointers that you can bring back into the flight sim world.”

The next generation of pilots will one day share their stories about how they found aviation. In our youth, both Palmer and I supplemented our interest in aviation with early flight simulation experiences.

With the growing popularity of the home flight simulation, coupled with aviation content on YouTube and other channels, we are in the middle of a rising tide of digital flying activity that will hopefully continue to widen the funnel, bringing new people into real-world aviation, making it more accessible, and strengthening it for the future.

This feature first appeared in the November 2023/Issue 943 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Our Pilots of the Future May Share Sim Stories appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Jackets on Display

Aviation museums have become repositories for flight jackets, including one of the most storied, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. According to Alex Spencer, curator of European, British, and Commonwealth military aviation, military flight clothing, and memorabilia, the museum boasts 25 flight jackets in its collection, most from World War II and a few from later conflicts and wars.

Three of Spencer’s favorites are the A-2s worn by Claire Chennault, Thomas Weems, and Kenneth Williams. Chennault was a U.S. major general who commanded the U.S. Army Air Forces in China during World War II and created the American Volunteer Group (AVG), best known as the “Flying Tigers.” Weems served as a navigator aboard Martin B-26 Marauder Winsockie in the 69th Bombardment Squadron at the Battle of Midway in 1942. Winsockie was one of five B-26s sent to attack the Japanese carrier fleet. Only two of the aircraft returned. Williams was a member of the crew of the B-17 Murder Inc.

“The B-17 was named after a mafia group in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s,” says Spencer. “The guys on the airplane thought it was a good idea. When the airplane was shot down by the Germans, the propaganda arm took the name of the aircraft to show they had ‘absolute proof’ [that] the Americans were terror fliers out to murder civilians. It became an international incident and, when it got back to General Hap Arnold, he ordered a review of all airplane names. Anything to do with murder or killing or such were ordered to be erased and renamed.”

Williams was captured and sent to a POW camp.

“He scratched the name of the airplane off the jacket. After the war he had the jacket repainted,” says Spencer, adding that it is not uncommon for the families of the veterans to visit the museum to see a flight jacket that belonged to a relative.

The WASP Jacket

The latest jacket to be placed in the care of the Smithsonian Institute is an A-2 that belonged to Janice Christensen, a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) class of 43-W-5.

According to Dorothy Cochrane, curator for general aviation and aerial photography at the museum, Christensen flew many aircraft, including the B-24, until the WASP program was disbanded in December 1944. After her WASP service, Christensen worked at the U.S.

Airway Traffic Control Center in Chicago and at various weather stations in Ohio, then transitioned to a career in medicine. She continued to fly as a member of the Civil Air Patrol, and in 1949 she joined the Air Force Reserve with the rank of first lieutenant. She received an honorable discharge with the rank of captain on November 7, 1963.

Christensen died in 1965, so she did not live to see the WASP granted veteran status. Her jacket, donated to the museum by her sister, Dagmar Joyce Noll, is scheduled to undergo preservation and restoration before being displayed.

Museum of Flight Jackets

One of the challenges of exhibiting flight jackets is deciding how much history to share, says Matthew Burchette, senior curator at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The MOF has several jackets on display in the Personal Courage wing that include details of what company made the jacket.

“Not many people realize that there were several manufacturers of A-2s during World War II, ” Burchette says.

Burchette’s favorite jacket on display comes from Richard Jacobson, who was the copilot of the B-17 5 Grand.

“The aircraft was the 5,000th B-17 built since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and nearly every Boeing employee signed it as it rolled off the line,” Burchette says. “Covered in signatures, it flew 78 missions over Germany. I love how the Boeing workers took such great pride in their work that they were willing to sign an object that might not come home. 5 Grand did come home but was scrapped after the war.”

Burchette believes it is important that people realize flight jackets are more than just clothing or protective gear for pilots and crewmembers.

“They are an extension of the planes they flew and took pride in,” he says. “The flight jacket is an item of uniquely American clothing, and the artwork painted on many is even more so. Looking at the jackets on display, it is clear that the owner was proud to wear them. Some show signs of much wear after the war, while others are nearly pristine, showing they were treated with respect and reverence.”

Post-WWII Jacket

Leather flight jackets were still worn up through the Vietnam War. Many military pilots kept their jackets when they separated from the service. Rusty Sachs, a flight instructor for airplanes and rotorcraft, and executive director of the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) from 2004 to 2007, is one of those. Sachs still has the leather jacket issued to him when he was a cadet in the U.S. Marine Corps. He enlisted in 1964 and became a helicopter pilot. According to Sachs, the jacket was handed to him in Pensacola, Florida, in February 1965 upon completion of preflight training.

Sachs, who served in Vietnam, tells the story of an enemy attack that had the soldiers running for cover in the bunker. Sachs left his jacket in the tent. A few weeks after the attack, he noted his jacket “had a few small holes in it made by shrapnel.” He had the jacket relined in 1969 when he entered the Marine Reserve, making the holes more difficult to find. After Sachs separated from the Marines in 1970, the jacket went into the closet but was recently sent out for restoration.

Family Heirlooms, Legacy

John Niehaus, a 5,500-hour airline transport pilot and the director of development for NAFI, wears a jacket that belonged to a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam who was a good friend of his uncle.

Niehaus decided on a career in aviation while in high school and received the jacket as a graduation gift.

“The note inside read, ‘I know I haven’t been the uncle you always wanted or needed, but this jacket was earned by my best friend who was a pilot in the military. It served him well, and he left it to me after he passed away. He would have wanted me to pass it on to you. I hope it serves you just as well. Good luck living your dream.’”

Unfortunately, the uncle died before he had the opportunity to share more about his friend. The name “Barthel” is stenciled inside the jacket.

Niehaus says he is very careful about where and how he wears the jacket because he doesn’t want people to assume he served in the military. “I never wanted to misrepresent myself to be something that I am not,” says Niehaus. “When I wear it, people ask questions to which I reply that it is continuing a family legacy of honoring a family friend. The person was special to my uncle as a friend, and…knowing that my uncle parted with something of such high sentimental value as a show of support to me was so incredibly special.”

Someday, the jacket will likely be handed down to Niehaus’ son, who, at age 4, already loves aviation and wears a jacket that looks very much like his father’s.

Receive and Bestow

I have been on both sides of the heirloom equation. In my collection, I have jackets given to me by gentlemen who will never be a size 40 again but who want theirs to be appreciated and occasionally worn on “military days of remembrance and obligation.” A recent acquisition is a pre-WWII A-2 that belonged to Captain Jack L. Martin, U.S. Army Air Forces pilot and father-in-law of Anne Palmer Martin, a college friend and my chosen family. Captain Martin went West in 1970 decades before his son Robert married Anne Palmer.

We’re still trying to determine what Captain Martin did in the war. We’ve been able to figure out that the patch on the jacket is the early version of the 760th Bombardment Squadron, but we don’t know if Martin went overseas. We do know after the war he flew for Flying Tiger airlines.

Recently, I gifted my first flight jacket, a 1980s era distressed leather A-2, to my niece Sophie Keene. My aviation and journalism careers began concurrently. My first “big paycheck” was used for flying lessons and the purchase of the jacket from the Smithsonian catalog. Top Gun had been released, and leather jackets were in style, worn by reporters in the Persian Gulf War. I was known in that small market as “the reporter who flies.” A few years later when I decided to make aviation a career, I upgraded to a new A-2, putting the distressed one into the closet. The day Sophie was born, I packed away the jacket for safekeeping. The jacket was gifted to her for her 18th birthday.

Since we are an aviation family, Sophie grew up hearing stories about my flying adventures and about grandma Kay (my Mom), who took flying lessons during WWII and loved the P-38 Lighting. I am hopeful Sophie values the jacket as more than a fashion statement.

Tribute Jackets

Most vintage jackets are too valuable and fragile to wear every day, but if you are set on sporting a piece of history, consider a replica often known as a “tribute jacket.” Kevin Wisniewski, a skilled artist from Milwaukee has been painting these jackets since 1987. According to Wisniewski, tribute jackets are often designs commissioned by someone to honor a person or commemorate an event.

For replica jackets, he often works off photographs because the original jacket has long since disappeared. Pinup girls are popular.

“They painted these on their jackets and aircraft as good luck, reminding them of what they were fighting for back home,” says Wisniewski. “We have to remember these were young boys in their late teens and early 20s who, if not for the war, would be courting these women and planning futures. Other paintings of aircraft or cartoon characters depicting giving the enemy what they had coming were also a morale booster.”

He has two favorite reproduced jackets.

“One…I painted a while back with the likeness of my wife, Beth, in a classic period ‘nose art’ pose as was on an original aircraft, Bottom’s Up! The other is a jacket that was given to me by a fellow reenactor and friend, George Bruckert’s estate. He had painted it himself quite well and very authentically. He passed from cancer way too young, and I think of him when I see it.”

Wisniewski uses only hand brushes and brush-texture techniques.

“This is how they were done during the war,” he says. “Airbrushing is a bad word in my dictionary. One modern improvement is that I use acrylic leather dyes that, unlike original acrylics, won’t crack over time or chip off.”

Another Kind of Tribute

The A-2 that I wear today falls under the heading of a “tribute jacket,” but instead of paint, it has patches to honor a person and commemorate an event. The first patch was Fifinella, the mascot of the WASPs, and a gift from Florence Shutsy Reynolds, WASP class of 44-W-5. The next patch is from the “Lost Squadron” P-38 Glacier Girl, gracing the jacket to honor Mom and cover a hole I acquired when I rescued a kitten from a tree. There also are multiple patches for my mentors. For Dean Boyd, the man who made an instructor out of me, I display the 8th Air Force. Boyd enlisted at the age of 17 and made a career of it.

There is also the Tico Tiger from the USS Ticonderoga in honor of aviation journalist and retired naval aviator Captain Thomas F. Norton, who flew off the carrier during Vietnam and taught nuggets to fly. There are patches from Lockheed to honor Dad, as well as ones for every B-17 I have been aboard: Memphis Belle, Texas Raiders, Yankee Lady, and Nine-O-Nine. And there are patches for Red Tails and Hemlock Films, which continues to share the stories of vintage aviation.

Aviation education is marked with a patch from the Society of Aviation Flight Educators, as I am a founding member of the group, and it was from it that I earned the master CFI designation several times over. On one pocket there is a vintage Moffett Field (KNUQ) patch to commemorate attending Zeppelin NT school in California in 2009. We are also an airship family, and putting that patch on was a must. I have found the jacket to be an excellent conversation starter. It encourages people to share their aviation stories with me. And I gladly listen.

Protecting Your Jacket

No matter how old the jacket is, if it means something to you, it’s valuable.

Protect it by nourishing it with professional leather care products. You can get these from shoe repair stores. If it is an heirloom, consider storing the jacket flat in a box or footlocker. It will last you a lifetime or more.

If you intend to sell it, have the jacket appraised by a reputable dealer. Authentic World War II jackets in good condition can fetch $1,500 or more.

If you want to buy one, modern flight jackets are not cheap. Expect to pay close to $300 or more for a basic A-2 and as high as $2,000 for an RAF bomber jacket. Beware of scammers who claim to have new authentic A-2 and shearling-lined RAF jackets for ridiculously low prices (less than $200). They may have the design of the jacket, but the materials are subpar. Instead of leather with a sheepskin lining, it looks more like someone tore up a faux leather couch and skinned a muppet.

Save your money and go for the real deal.

Where to find vintage? Prowl swap meets and even garage and estate sales near military bases.

This feature first appeared in the November 2023/Issue 943 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post All Flight Jackets Tell a Story appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

For history and aviation buffs, this is must-see programming. The series, based on the 2007 book of the same name by Donald L. Miller, chronicles the experiences of the 100th Bomb Group, part of the Eighth Air Force in England during the war. For those who swoon at the sight and sound of a Boeing B-17, this is something you will want to watch. Several times.

The series is touted as a companion piece to HBO’s Band of Brothers and The Pacific. All three of these gritty war dramas were produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

The miniseries was several years in discussion, and when the green light was given, there was no shortage of aviation and WWII historians who wanted to be part of the project. One of those was Taigh Ramey, well known in the American warbird circuit for his Twin Beech restoration, maintenance facility, and role at the Stockton Field Aviation Museum and WWII Bomber Camp in California.

Ramey’s mother was an Army nurse in WWII, and his father a navigator aboard a B-29. As a child, he built model aircraft with his dad and collected aircraft instruments. One year for Christmas, Ramey received a Crocker-Wheeler A-8 gun turret.

“It was new in the original crate from 1943,” Ramey said. “The like-new Plexiglas dome had a protective cover over it that was stenciled ‘TRAINING TURRET TYPE A-8 FOR MODEL AT-11 AIRCRAFT.’ It was so cool, and I asked my dad what an AT-11 was. He showed me a photo and said that he and a buddy took an AT-11 out of Saipan in 1945 and buzzed the Japanese in the control tower on the island of Rota, making them jump out! Combat use of an AT-11!”

The AT-11 is a military variant of the Twin Beech, and Ramey became familiar with the civilian aircraft while studying aeronautics at San Jose State University. He discovered a patch-and-rivet pattern on one of the aircraft in the school program that indicated it had been used by the military as a bombardier trainer. That fueled his desire to get an AT-11 of his own. He learned SJSU was planning to discard the aircraft, and if he wanted it as a project, it would cost $250 for the airframe—engines not included. He borrowed the money from his mother and became the proud owner of a 1943 Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan bombardier trainer.

Fast-forward a few decades. Ramey, now a 5,000-hour commercial pilot with multiengine, CFI, MEI, and A&P/IA certificates,  learns the Masters of the Air project is moving forward—and knew he wanted to be part of it.

“I emailed as many folks as possible to try and get involved,” he said. “I am sure about 10,000 others did as well. It turned out that it was Bomber Camp that got me the job.”

The idea for Bomber Camp started as a paper Ramey wrote in college. It has since evolved into an educational camp for adults where they learn all about WWII air and ground crew by living the experience. They dress in WWII-authentic clothing and learn about the jobs of the men during the war. They have the opportunity to fly on a B-17G for a simulated mission with dummy bombs.

“The students get to shoot the 50-cal machine gun and get to drop bombs with the famous Norden bombsight,” Ramey said. “You can even ride in a ball turret in flight and all of the other crew positions in the B-17.”

People who knew about Bomber Camp suggested Ramey to the movie’s production staff as a technical adviser on the series, and soon he received a call asking if he would like to come out for two weeks to train pilots to act like they could fly a B-17.

Although he does not have a type rating in a B-17, Ramey does have type ratings in other WWII aircraft and had flown right seat in the Collings Foundation’s 909.

A week later Ramey was in the U.K. as a WWII aviation adviser/B-17 technical adviser on the project. His job was to work with the actors portraying the flight crews as well as assisting the production department to make sure the on-screen action appeared authentic. For example, he made sure the actors were looking at the correct gauges on the instrument panel at a specific moment, such as when an engine is damaged in flight and they commented on a loss of power.

“After the two weeks were up, I was packing to go home and I talked to production about my upcoming flight,” Ramey said. “They said, ‘Oh, didn’t they tell you? You are staying for the filming.’ Uh, no. Nobody asked me if I could stay. Of course, I stayed and I was there for the full nine months of filming.”

Ramey’s work on the Masters of the Air project broadened. He went to the National Archives and Records Administration to research each mission to gain a better understanding of what it took to make it happen, then worked with Meghan Jones in the graphics department on the flight planning. The maps and plotting of courses shown in the movie are correct, he said.

“The production staff were so determined to make this as accurate as possible,” Ramey said. “The amount of effort that went into this series is beyond amazing.”

He was also tasked with teaching the actors how to handle the aircraft controls as if they were actually flying.

“I assumed that some of the actors would have a basic understanding of flying, maybe through flight simulators, gaming, or something,” Ramey said. “Not a single one had any prior experience. So I sat them down in a chair and had them hold a control wheel and make a turn with their hands and feet, telling them the basics of how the controls work. [How] to turn, roll in the rudder and aileron, and then add some back pressure. They needed to know…you can’t just hold the wheel over the full time like in your car, but you [have] to center the controls.”

No real B-17s were used in the filming, according to Ramey. Instead, two full-sized B-17 replicas were constructed, one of which was able to move with large electric motors on each main landing gear.

Ramey instructed the actors about how to handle the throttles and other controls, where to look when flying formation, and how the crew interacts in flight, such as teaching the copilot how to back up the pilot and how the flight engineer/top turret gunner stood between the pilots on takeoff.

“[I also taught the gunners] how to work the Browning M2 50 cal and how to track the fighters and how long the burst of fire would typically be,” he said. “The bombardier needed to learn how to manipulate the awkward controls of the Norden bombsight in an accurate manner to manipulate his bomb bay door and bomb release controls and to interact with the pilot on the bomb run.”

Briton David Littleton  also served as a technical adviser. Littleton had worked as an adviser and on the aircrew for the 1990 film Memphis Belle.

“I was on the flight crew for the B-17 Sally B and was tasked with firing the guns during filming from Duxford and later at Binbrook,” Littleton said.

He also worked on 2012’s Red Tails, directed by George Lucas, employed by the art department to oversee the build and kitting out of the B-17 section that was made. Littleton has a B-17 cockpit that was used for the close-up shots. On Masters of the Air the production manager contacted him about coming to see his B-17. According to Littleton, the producers used his cockpit as a template to construct sets for filming.

“My cockpit was shipped to Longcross Studios as a reference to the team to build the B-17,” he said. “I supplied many parts for the team to model and make replicas. The interior sets were visually complete from the nose to the tail for filming. These were started a year before filming commenced.”

Littleton said he also provided smaller items, such as machine gun mounts that were reproduced by the props department. His cockpit was used to train the pilots, copilots, and flight engineers.

“Myself and Taigh Ramey worked with Captain Dale Dye to assist with the extras and other actors for other crew roles,” Littleton said. “We were on hand to assist the directors on various B-17 scenes that were to be filmed.”

If you have been inside a B-17, you know how cramped it is. This was noted during the filming, as the crew were aboard B-17F, where the waist gunner windows are located directly across from each other. During combat the gunners would often slam into each other. Later-model B-17s staggered the gunners’ positions so this didn’t happen.

The combat scenes for Masters of the Air were handled using CGI. Based on recorded accounts of those who were there, the images are historically authentic. You can’t help but flinch when the German fighters come at the aircraft and parts of it are blown inward from antiaircraft gun flak.

The detail inside the bomber is impressive. You see all the headset and microphone cords, the piles of bullet casings on the floor, and the oxygen hoses and electrical cords for the heated flying suits hanging from a bulkhead or sheared off by flak. Add to this the physiological challenge of being at 20,000 feet, where the temperature is 40 below zero. There are several scenes where the airmen experience frostbite because of the below-freezing temperatures at altitude and hypoxia when their oxygen masks are knocked loose by flak or the hoses torn.

There is a gritty reality to this series that has not appeared in others. Littleton notes he has heard from a few veterans that watching Masters of the Air is a very emotional experience for them.

Like Ramey, Littleton was impressed by the production department’s attention to detail right down to the sounds of the B-17 starting up with the hydraulic pumps to the tiny details of life in the 1940s.

“The production team [was] very good to understand what was required, and a lot of research was carried out,” said Littleton, noting that the sets built at Abingdon Airfield and Mapledurham, and Chalfont Saint Giles were extremely detailed. “Everyone wanted to make sure everything was as correct as it could be. There was so much that was reproduced to make sure it was period correct that a lot was not even seen on the screen, even down to boxes of period matches and chewing gum.”

The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down production. Masks were worn, and if someone on the movie crew tested positive for the virus, filming ground to a halt. This added several weeks to the production schedule.

Both Ramey and Littleton hope the viewers of Masters of the Air will gain perspective on the experiences of the airmen and how it shaped their lives after the war.

For example, a friend of mine’s father was a waist gunner on a B-17 shot down in 1944. He was 19 years old at the time. He bailed out and survived, was taken prisoner, and placed in Stalag Luft III—three days after the so-called “Great Escape,” where 76 allied airmen broke out using a tunnel. The Germans were embarrassed by the escape, and the men left in the camp paid the price. He survived the war and was repatriated, but as a result of his experiences, he would become very agitated when there was a power outage, especially in the winter. The family took care to have extra food and an emergency heat source in the house.

What makes Masters of the Air even more poignant is that the generation that fought in WWII has all but disappeared—and most took their stories with them. It’s only years later that their children and grandchildren or someone at a flea market finds their diaries or letters home.

While the rivet counters may find fault in some aspects of Masters of the Air, it still provides a window into that global conflict and a reminder of those who served.

New episodes of Masters of the Air are released on Fridays on Apple TV.

Longtime Passion for WWII Period Evident in Steven Spielberg

Masters of the Air director Steven Spielberg’s father served on a B-25 during World War II, and he has always had a fascination for the period.

For the true Spielberg fans out there, you may recall his 1980s TV science fiction anthology series Amazing Stories that featured an episode called “The Mission,” where the ball turret gunner of the B-17 Friendly Persuasion is trapped in his compartment when a German fighter collides with the aircraft. In addition, the B-17’s landing gear fails. The crew realizes they will be doing a belly landing and the ball turret – and the man inside – will be crushed.

The ball turret gunner is an aspiring cartoonist. He draws under pressure, and when he realizes the magnitude of his situation, he draws a cartoon of a B-17 with balloon tires—and they magically come to be. This was made possible by using the same production techniques for the 1988 feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The cartoon tires remain in place while the turret gunner is rescued. He is in a daze, and when he comes out of it, the tires disappear.

The post ‘Masters of the Air’ Miniseries Is Must-See TV for Aviation Buffs appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

For decades, the Wings of Freedom tour brought World War II aircraft to thousands of aviation fans at airports across the country, offering rides for a price aboard the Boeing B-17G, B-25, B-24, and P-51D.

The end of the decades-long tour did not come as a surprise to many, who, after watching the high profile deadly accidents of recent years, feared this would happen. However, Rob Collings, the president of the Foundation noted that the Wings of Freedom Tour was originally begun to reach as many World War II veterans as possible and it did—but, as noted by Collings, there are very few World War II veterans left, and the focus of the organization has shifted to “acquire and restore the most historic types of aircraft and artifacts with the best provenance to allow a new generation to connect with the history.”

According to Collings, the American Heritage Museum is a 501(c)(3) organization located in Hudson, Massachusetts, has “a collection of military vehicles spanning the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard and other nations with 50 aircraft and over 90 vehicles in addition to large artifacts such as the rebuilt Hanoi Hilton POW cell and a part of the Berlin Wall.” To allow more school groups, greater education, and more robust preservation of the legacy of the veterans meant a far more immersive, audio-visual based museum, which the American Heritage Museum has delivered. “We have adapted our approach,” he continued, “but we still remain committed to operating many of the vehicles and aircraft for the public at our events and with our outreach program.”

The expansion of the museum will add more than 90,000 square feet of highly immersive museum space to display the most iconic aircraft from World War I and World War II. The ground vehicles, such as the tanks, will still be operated as part of the living history weekends held in the summer.

Many in the warbird community predicted this outcome following the loss of the B-17 Nine-O-Nine that killed seven people and injured seven at Bradley International Airport (KBDL) in Connecticut. The accident happened during the Wings of Freedom Tour. For ten months out of the year, the tour traveled around the U.S. Many FBOs sponsored and hosted the tour, as it was great for business to have these iconic aircraft parked on the ramp.

During the tour, people paid hundreds of dollars for a 20-minute airplane ride. A seat on the B-17 or B-24 ran $425. A seat in the front compartment of the B-25 went for $400, one in the back for $325. The back seat in the P-51D went for $2,200 for 30 minutes. As the organization is a 501(c)(3), the money was considered a donation. During a stop, the B-17 routine flew two rides per hour with ten passengers onboard. In addition, t-shirt sales at stops added up to millions of dollars per year. That all ended on October 2, 2019.

The Accident

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the accident flight was the first of the day. The aircraft with two pilots, a loadmaster, and seven passengers lifted off from Runway 06. The Collings Foundation was operating under an FAA exemption 6540P as part of a Living History Flight Experience (LHFE).

Normal procedures called for all occupants of the aircraft to be seated and seatbelted in during takeoffs and landings. Normally, two passengers were seated on the flight deck behind the pilot and copilot while the rest of the passengers and the loadmaster occupied seats on the floor in the radio compartment. Each seat had a military style seatbelt with a lift and latch attachment. Normal procedures called for the loadmaster to brief the passengers on seatbelt use, exits and safety equipment. The loadmaster was also tasked with letting the passengers know when it was safe to get out of these seats and roam around the aircraft and when they needed to return to their seats.

• READ MORE: B-17 “Nine-O-Nine” Crashes in Connecticut

According to the NTSB report, the loadmaster, the only member of the crew to survive the accident, was standing, unsecured, between the pilots during takeoff. He left the cockpit just after takeoff to tell the passengers they could get out of their seats, but when he returned to the cockpit he realized the aircraft was not climbing.

The aircraft was at an altitude of approximately 600 feet above ground on the right crosswind leg when one of the pilots contacted air traffic control stating that the airplane needed to return to land because of a rough magneto. The controller asked the pilot if he needed any assistance, to which the pilot replied,“negative.”

The loadmaster told the NTSB that the pilot instructed the copilot to extend the landing gear, which he did. The loadmaster then left the cockpit to instruct the passengers to return to their seats and fasten their seat belts. According to local news reports, one of the passengers texted his wife that the aircraft was returning “because of turbulence.”

When the loadmaster returned again to the cockpit, the pilot stated that “the No. 4 engine was losing power” and then, without discussion or crew coordination, shut down the engine and feathered the propeller.

Video of the bomber taken from the ground shows it struggling to hold altitude. When the airplane was at midfield on downwind, it was at an altitude of about 400 feet agl, although it had about 2.7 miles to go before it reached the threshold for Runway 6. The airplane came in with its right wing down, striking the ground 500 feet short of the runway. The aircraft veered to the right as it continued its landing roll, colliding with ground vehicles and sliding over a deicing fluid tank 940 feet to the right of the runway. An explosion and post-accident fire consumed the aircraft.

The cause of death for the pilot and copilot were smoke inhalation, thermal injury, and blunt trauma.

The cause of death for the five passengers was blunt impact injury and/or thermal injury and smoke inhalation. Two passengers and the loadmaster escaped out the cockpit window. The rest of the survivors got out through the rear of the aircraft. One person on the ground was injured as well.

During the investigation, the NTSB found numerous unresolved maintenance issues and crew training failures. It was noted that the pilot in command on the accident flight was also the director of maintenance. The uncommanded loss of engine power was attributed to deferred maintenance. In addition, there was a lack of oversight by the FAA of the Foundation’s safety management practices system, which, in addition to aircraft maintenance, included flight operations, such as briefing passengers on the proper use of seatbelts, exits, and emergency equipment. It was also noted that the pilots did not use shoulder harnesses and the loadmaster would stand unrestrained between the pilots during takeoff and landing although there was a seat with a seatbelt for him to the left of the ball turret.

The NTSB noted, “The pilots’ failure to use their shoulder harnesses and the loadmaster’s failure to be restrained during takeoff and landing were inconsistent with federal regulations addressing the use of safety belts and shoulder harnesses.”

In March of 2020, the FAA ruled that the Collings Foundation could no longer accept money from people who wanted to fly aboard the organization’s World War II aircraft. The agency also denied the Foundation’s request to renew the LHFE exemption.

The NTSB probable cause of the accident, released on May 17, 2021, cited the pilot’s failure to properly manage the airplane’s configuration and airspeed after he shut down the No. 4 engine following its partial loss of power during the initial climb. Contributing to the accident was the pilot/maintenance director’s inadequate maintenance while the airplane was on tour, which resulted in the partial loss of power to the No. 3 and No. 4 engines; the Collings Foundation’s ineffective safety management system (SMS), which failed to identify and mitigate safety risks; and the FAA’s inadequate oversight of the Collings Foundation’s SMS.

Last month, the Collings Foundation settled legal claims involving eight of the passengers who were aboard Nine-O-Nine when it crashed. Two other persons involved reached a deal with the Foundation in 2021. Terms of the settlements were not released to the public.

Grounding the Remaining B-17s

The call to ground the remaining B-17s rang out again last November when the Commemorative Air Force B-17 Texas Raiders was destroyed in a midair collision with a Bell P-63 Kingcobra on November 12, 2022, during the Wings Over Dallas Airshow. Six men were killed when the P-63 sliced through the B-17 to the horror of the thousands of people who were at the show and the millions more who saw the online photographs and video of the collision. The NTSB and FAA are still investigating that accident.

• READ MORE: Remembering ‘Texas Raiders’

Prior to this in 2011 the B-17 Liberty Belle was destroyed by fire after an unscheduled off-airport landing. The fire broke out in flight. Thanks to the skill of the crew, no one was killed when the pilots landed it in an agricultural field in Aurora, Illinois. Unfortunately, the rain-soaked ground was too soft for fire trucks to reach the aircraft so the crews watched helplessly from the road as it burned.

According to Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) spokesman Dick Knapinski, their B-17 Aluminum Overcast is still in the shop for spar repairs triggered by an airworthiness directive issued last spring.

• READ MORE: FAA Grounds B-17s Through Airworthiness Directive

However, the EAA still plans to have their B-25 and Ford TriMotor flying in 2024.

The post Collings Foundation Grounds Air Tour for WWII Aircraft appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

A: Yes. The No. 1 and No. 4 engines are outboard of the respective left and right main landing-gear wheels. So, the pilot locks the left brake and applies power to the left outboard engine, causing the airplane to pivot on the left tire and forcing the right tire to roll aft. The pilot then applies right brake and adds power to the right outboard engine, which causes the left tire to roll aft. By alternating No. 1 and No. 4 engine power, and left and right wheel brakes, the pilot can “walk” the entire airplane backward.

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

The post Parking the ‘Flying Fortress’? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Just like so many events and public spaces that have experienced closures and cancellations this year, the Experimental Aircraft Association was forced to pull the plug on the popular national tour of their beautiful restored B-17 bomber Aluminum Overcast earlier in 2020 because of health concerns arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with new safety measures in place, EAA has resumed public tour stops of the B-17 Flying Fortress, limited for now to missions that can be conducted out and back from the association’s headquarters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

B-17 tour organizers explained that for now, the Aluminum Overcast tour stops are for flights only, with no ground tours allowed. The downtime between public flights will give the tour crew time for additional sanitizing of the aircraft between flights using a COVID-19 ionizing fogger. All ground and flight crew plus media and passengers are also required to wear face coverings.

There is not currently a formal tour planned. A stop in partnership with EAA Chapter 33 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on October 23 to 25 saw 109 prospective riders pre-book, with the B-17 making 14 total flights, despite tricky weather. Aluminum Overcast was scheduled to visit at the University of Illinois-Willard airport in Champaign, Illinois, this past weekend. Further stops are being developed at this time, and EAA advises interested passengers to visit their B-17 web page for updates and information.

The Flight Operations team at EAA had spent seven months communicating with chapters, prospective airport hosts, and other operators, and during that time developed the new out-and-back tour stop model to ensure Aluminum Overcast could continue operating in a safe manner.

“COVID-19 was a non-issue in Cedar Rapids because our volunteers and guests treated each other with respect,” EAA manager of air tours Kristy Busse said. “The entire public from small children up to our oldest visitor self-regulated within CDC guidance. We had no issues with riders as a result of COVID-19 related changes and, in fact, the weather was a bigger factor on the weekend than anything pandemic related. We have to continue to learn because every location, airport, and host has its own unique differences and challenges, but I am confident in saying this past weekend was a safe, successful, and excellent event taking a big step in the right direction towards getting EAA’s touring aircraft back out to the public. We will continue to work with other operators and subject matter experts to evolve our procedures to best protect our visitors, local hosts, and crew.”

Even with more safety precautions in place, Busse added that the experience of flying on Aluminum Overcast has not changed. “I can tell you that the unseasonably cold temperatures, in the 30s each day, did not deter our visitors from coming off of the airplane smiling ear-to-ear. Many of our visitors brought family stories and memories showcasing their direct connection to World War II, the B-17, and the Greatest Generation. It was an honor to spend time with each of them and feel the importance of their connection to this aircraft and flight experience,” she said.

EAA’s vice president of advocacy and safety, Sean Elliott, was in the B-17′s left seat for the stop in Champaign and explained the process the association went through to again bring Aluminum Overcast out to the public. “We wanted to get the B-17 out before the end of the year, as people have been asking when we would return to touring the aircraft. We also understood that we could not operate under the same procedures as in the past because of the current COVID situation. Our Flight Operations team spent a lot of time planning how we would accomplish it. As we planned, we used the latest CDC guidance, input from local health officials, and studied best practices such as what the airlines are doing right now. We also worked with local EAA chapters as potential hosts, determining what the public health and confidence levels were in their communities. All of these elements needed to work together to be successful. To have this opportunity late this year gives us a jump start on things we can do as we plan the 2021 tour,” Elliott said.

Aluminum Overcast represents the iconic B-17 bomber family well. Originally delivered in 1945, the B-17G is powered by four 1,200-horsepower, nine-cylinder Wright Cyclone Model R-1820-97 engines spinning three-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers that are 11 feet, 7 inches in diameter. With a gross wartime weight of 65,500 lbs and ability to tanker 1,700 gallons of fuel, the B-17G had a range of 1,850 nm in its standard configuration. That range could be considerably extended when the airplane carried 3,630 gallons of fuel using auxiliary “Tokyo Tanks.”

According to an EAA fact sheet on Aluminum Overcast, a little-known fact about the B-17G’s armaments is that while the 13 Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine guns could fire at a rate of approximately 13 rounds per second, no gun onboard carried more than one minute’s supply of ammunition.

EAA says “Aluminum Overcast is more than just an airplane. It is a living tribute to the brave individuals who served, sacrificed, and, in many cases gave up their lives defending freedom during World War II.” To help keep their B-17 flying for future generations, EAA asks that anyone interested in donating visit this page.

The post EAA’s B-17 “Aluminum Overcast” Again Making Public Tour Stops appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

As the Collings Foundation’s crippled B-17, N93012, was approaching Runway 6 at Bradley Windsor Locks, Connecticut, a few weeks ago, the crew was already desperately pressed for altitude to try and align the World War II bomber with the runway for landing. Shortly after takeoff from Runway 6 just minutes before, the airplane never climbed above 500 feet agl before it began a return to the field with a mechanical problem reported in the number four engine. By the time the airplane was on downwind, its altitude had dropped to 300 feet. During the turn from base to final, the Boeing continued losing altitude, eventually striking the airport approach lights 1,000 feet short of the hard surface before it veered right and struck a number of vehicles, as well as a deicing fluid tank sitting 1,100 feet right of the runway threshold.

We know that shortly after takeoff as the Boeing was turning crosswind, one of the pilots notified ATC that the airplane needed to return to the field. The approach controller asked the pilot if the aircraft required any assistance, to which the pilot responded, “No.” ATC cleared other aircraft out of the B-17’s path despite the seeming lack of urgency on the part of the crew.

The NTSB’s preliminary report of the B-17 accident published Tuesday said, “The wreckage came to rest upright and the majority of the cabin, cockpit, and right wing were consumed by postimpact fire.” The report also confirmed the aircraft’s landing gear was down, but that the approach was conducted with flaps up, possibly to minimize drag on the already damaged bomber.

The two pilots on board, as well as five passengers, died in the crash, while five others on board were seriously injured. One person on the aircraft received minor injuries, as did one person on the ground. The Bradley weather that morning brought clear skies and calm winds to the region. The B-17 appears to have been operated as it has in the past as part of the Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom tour flights held around the U.S.

During the initial forensic investigation, the NTSB inspector tested a fuel sample from both the B-17 and the line service truck that had added 160 gallons of 100LL before takeoff. Both smelled like avgas and neither tested positive for debris or water contamination. The NTSB’s investigation of the Boeing’s maintenance records seemed to confirm what most people believed anyway about how the Collings Foundation took care of its warbird fleet; with plenty of TLC. “The airplane was maintained under an airworthiness inspection program, which incorporated an annual inspection, and 25-hour, 50-hour, 75-hour, and 100-hour progressive inspections. Review of maintenance records revealed that the airplane’s most recent annual inspection was completed on January 16, 2019. At that time, the airframe had accumulated about 11,120 total hours of operation. Engine Nos. 1, 2, and 3 had 0 hours since major overhaul at that time. Engine No. 4 had 838.2 hours since major overhaul at that time. The airplane’s most recent progressive inspection, which was the 100-hour inspection, was completed on September 23, 2019. At that time, the airplane had been operated about 268 hours since the annual inspection.”

The post NTSB Offers Preliminary Information on B-17 Accident at Bradley appeared first on FLYING Magazine.