New Orleans-- History flew into New Orleans Lakefront airport Thursday, a World War II B-17 "Flying Fortress."
"It's an incredible thrill," said pilot Sean Elliott of the Wisconsin-based Experimental Aircraft Association. "This is such an iconic airplane."
Elliott explains driving the B-17 also requires much more in the way of pilot skills. "It's very must a historic, vintage airplane. It's a tail dragger. You have to really understand how to use your feet, how to use the rudder of the airplane."
This B-17, which the EAA has dubbed the "Aluminum Overcast," looks and sounds much as she did in 1945.
Her guns, now disabled, are still in place, as are the bomb bay doors. To fire a machine gun at approaching Nazi fighter planes, an airmen once squeezed into the ball turrett below the fuselage. That was sealed long ago.
The first B-17 came off the line in 1935, a long-range bomber capable of bringing the fight to the enemy.
"Ten years earlier, (planes) were made of tube, wood and fabric," said co-pilot George Daubner. "And now, you have this all-metal war bird."
Experimental aircraft enthusiast Donny Bourgeois, a member of the New Orleans EAA chapter, took the first ride out of Lakefront.
"This is an experience that few people today will ever (have)," said Bourgeois, who marveled at the planes rudimentary electronics.
There was also little in the way of creature comforts.
"Better them than us," joked Bourgeois.
The EAA brings the "Aluminum Overcast" on tours around the country, each one gaining in significance as World War II generation is lost.
"There's absolutely an urgency," said Daubner. "We're going to continue doing this until they're all gone."
Just as the New Orleans-built Higgins landing craft was credited with turning the tide of the war at Normandy, at sea level, the Flying Fortress was a difference maker at 20,000 feet.
"It broke the back of the German empire and its manufacturing capability," said Daubner.
