Historic B-17 roars over Front Range

Frank LaBlotier remembers his first mission as a B-17 waist gunner. He was five miles over the submarine pens at St. Nazarre on the French coast, huffing oxygen from a bottle, wrapped badly against temperatures in the 50 degree range-below zero-watching German fighters line up to attack his bomber.

"I thought 'what am I doing here?'" recalled the Denver native, then 19-years-old.

 On Monday afternoon, LeBlotier joined a group of journalists for a ride in a historic bomber decked out to resemble the famous "Memphis Belle."  The flight was a precursor to this weekend's public display of the iconic aircraft.

The spry 92-year-old smiled knowingly as the engines fired, watching novices react as the big plane began to rattle.

"Imagine this vibrating for eight or nine hours," he said.

 Other guests on the flight experienced this for just a taste-a half an hour. But it was a memorable span. When the "Memphis Belle" opens to the public over the weekend, June 7-8, visitors can walk through the bomber while on the ground for a donation. Those who purchase flying time will spend 45  minutes in the craft, much of it in the air, peering through the  open waist gunners positions, where LeBlotier once earned his trade, crouch in the nose behind the famous Norden Bombsight and glimpse a world difficult to comprehend.

The B-17, along with the B-24, were the workhorses in America's daylight bombing campaign against Nazi Germany and strategic targets in the occupied territories. On any day between the first furtive runs and Germany's surrender, groups of 300 or more of the four engine planes with crews of ten, could be seen streaking across the skies over Europe. It's fame was secured by the 1944 documentary "The Memphis Belle," as well as such films as "Twelve O'Clock High."

"You can't say enough,"  Denver's CBS 4 morning news anchor Alan Gionet  said afterward. "We think it's cool, but you can't begin to imagine being under fire and the raw courage of the guys who fought in those planes."

The plane in question was built in 1945 and preserved over time. In 1990 Hollywood used it in the film "Memphis Belle" to represent the B-17 honored during World War Two as the first to complete 25 missions-not an easy task, considering that some of the early raids cost as many as 60 bombers. The real "Memphis Belle" is currently being restored at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

In all, more than 4,700 B-17s were lost between 1941 and 1945. LaBlotier said that over 2,000 men assigned to his group died during the war.

While guests on board are asked to mind their heads while moving around during the flight, even the pilots must fight the vibrations.

"It is totally manual," said John Hess, normally a 737 captain for Delta, who took the B-17's controls on Monday. "You're working all the time."

Rides in the "Memphis Belle" cost $450 and go toward its continuing operation. The Liberty Foundation, a largely volunteer non-profit organization running two of the few remaining flyable bombers, spends close to $1.5 annually just to keep the historic planes in the air.

The B-17 will be open to the public for tours and for rides June 7-8 at the Rocky Mountain Metro Airport in Broomfield, Colorado.