Lynn & Gene's After-Labor-Day Vacation
IMG_7491 - F/8, 1/160th, ISO 100, 24mm
12 September 2005, 12:30 PM

While we drove into Bar Harbor and around the area of Trenton, we kept seeing signs tacked up on telephone poles advertising "B-17 Flying Fortress Rides" at the Hancock County airport. Curiosity got the better of us, so we drove in, and there we found the "Liberty Belle," an authentic WW2 B-17 Flying Fortress. I asked if we could walk around to take pictures, and the guy in the office (see the little gray building in the background on the right?) said sure. Right behind us was another group of people, one of which was an old veteran who had flown in these in WW2.

From the US Air Force Museum web site, part of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base web site: "The Flying Fortress is one of the most famous airplanes ever built. The B-17 prototype first flew on July 28, 1935. Few B-17s were in service on December 7, 1941, but production quickly accelerated. The aircraft served in every WW II combat zone, but is best known for daylight strategic bombing of German industrial targets. Production ended in May 1945 and totaled 12,726."