B-17 "Liberty Belle" goes down, burns, totally destroyed

[Goliath]

Time devours all things.

No, no, no. "Time is the fire in which we burn," remember?

Except in this case, fire was the fire in which it burned.

 

[M'Sharak]

You sure it was a RH engine fuel leak? One of the videos I saw was talking to the pilot (or some other crew?), and he said there was a leak between the #1 and #2 nacelles, which are on the left. The damage in the picture above looks to be worse on the LH side as well.

*edit*
There's a statement from the Liberty Belle Foundation's chief pilot on their website, correcting a lot of misinformation:
http://www.libertyfoundation.org/index.html
It seems that the fire was on the left.

You are correct: it was on the left and I was relying on memory - always a risky proposition at best, but I'd been unable to locate again the article in which I'd read about it.

 

[Emher]

Aw damn it. I love those planes

 

[M'Sharak]

Bumping this to add an item of which I was reminded while talking this morning to someone offline. The Liberty Belle had put in a Southern California appearance in the early part of last year, flying out of Bob Hope International in Burbank. Doug Drexler was aboard (along with a couple of other people who folks here might recognize); Doug posted this about it in March 2010:

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/a-god-apollo-is-my-co-pilot/

(Includes some really good photos.)

 

[PKTrekGirl]

That is a shame the plane went down - those planes are so cool looking.....

Missed this earlier when it was posted. Thanks for bumping, M'S. You see a lot of these planes in classic films from the WWII era, and I have always liked them.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I saw a documentary on a the recovery of a B-29 that had force landed in on a ice lake in the 50s. They got her airworthy (not with a tragedy, one worker developed a medical condition resulting in an evac but later died from complications), fitted new engines are were all set to go but an oil line rupted in the aft section and sprayed oil on to a heat and she just to burn. There was nothing they could do but sit and watch their hard work and 10s of 1000s of dollars go up in smoke.

I think I remember seeing that documentary. Such a shame that they had put in so much work only to have it burn. And I think the lake was in Canada somewhere. I think Yellowknife.

 

[marillion]

What a shame... The Liberty Belle flew over my neighborhood several years ago en route to the small airport nearby from which it was being shown.. Such an amazing sound... That rumble was incredible..

Am I right in thinking that they no longer fly the Memphis Belle? Perhaps too valuable a treasure to risk this sort of thing? I guess I could go let the google tell me... Always enjoyed the movie, but wished it was an accurate retelling of the story with the real names and events portrayed...

 

[Deckerd]

Wasn't the original film supposed to be a British bomber crew but the funders wanted something that would appeal to the US market?

Edit: scratch that - I was thinking of another film.

 

[M'Sharak]

I saw a documentary on a the recovery of a B-29 that had force landed in on a ice lake in the 50s. They got her airworthy (not with a tragedy, one worker developed a medical condition resulting in an evac but later died from complications), fitted new engines are were all set to go but an oil line rupted in the aft section and sprayed oil on to a heat and she just to burn. There was nothing they could do but sit and watch their hard work and 10s of 1000s of dollars go up in smoke.

I think I remember seeing that documentary. Such a shame that they had put in so much work only to have it burn. And I think the lake was in Canada somewhere. I think Yellowknife.

Northern Greenland, if it's the same one I remember seeing.