B-17 lands in city as part of summer tour

By Lethbridge Herald on July 3, 2023.

Herald photo BY ALEJANDRA PULIDO-GUZMAN The Sentimental Journey B-17 Flying Fortress landed in Lethbridge Monday as part of the Flying Legends of Victory tour. Sentimental Journey is one of two planes from the Commemorative Air Force Airbase that will be here through Sunday.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

The B-17 Flying Fortress Sentimental Journey landed in Lethbridge Monday morning to prepare for the Flying Legends of Victory tour taking place this week.

The tour is presented by the Commemorative Air Force Airbase Arizona, where the B-17 among other Second World War planes are displayed in their museum.

Ground stop co-ordinator Mike Shepherd said that since not everyone is able to go down to Arizona to see the airplanes, they take a couple of them, including the B-17, across North America over the summer, and this week from today until Sunday is Lethbridge’s turn to host two airplanes from the era, with the second, a B-25 called Maid in the Shade, arriving on Thursday.

“This is a B17G model and the G means that it was built near the end of the Second World War, specifically in 1944. It’s a Boeing aircraft built in Long Beach, California,” said Shepherd.

He said there were 12,731 of these airplanes built, but the Sentimental Journey is one of three that are still airworthy today.

Shepherd said after the Sentimental Journey was produced, it went to the Pacific theatre which was unusual for a B-17 as most of them ended up going to Europe to fight the war. He said those B-17s that joined the war had a crew of 10 young men, with two of those being in the front of the aircraft.

“One was the bombardier and one was the navigator. The bombardier had the responsibility to protect the front of the airplane with the guns, as well as drop the bombs specifically or as best as they could on the target that they were intending to hit,” said Shepherd.

He said they had the ability, on a nice clear day, to drop bombs from 20,000 feet into a 200-ft. circle, but it did not work out as well in cloudy days, which are very common in Europe, but it was still considered a very strategic weapon.

Shepherd said the airplane on display was put together with rivets, and it has about 500,000 of them. The Sentimental Journey along with other Second World War airplanes, was built by women. While men were fighting the war, women also test flew the aircraft and ferried them to wherever they were needed to fight the war.

He added that the Sentimental Journey went to the Pacific for a number of years and took on jobs of search and rescue and aerial photography.

“Probably a good thing because it allowed us to have it today, as many of the airplanes were lost in Europe. This one eventually made its way back to North America and went to work in Chico, California as a water bomber putting out forest fires. After that about 1977 one of our members of the Commemorative Air Force purchased it and donated it to our organization, so we’ve had it ever since,” said Shepherd.

Shepherd said after they acquired it, they put it in restoration for a number of years and it is kept in their museum, and they bring it out on what they call summer tour to give folks a chance to see an old airplane they might not see otherwise as well as take a ride.

“We sell rides which helps us pay our expenses. We’re a 501C3 non-profit, which means that every dollar we make goes back into keeping the old airplanes flying. We’re all volunteers and we’re all here because we want to be,” said Shepherd.

He said it is very expensive to operate the planes they take on tour as their engines burn approximately 800 litres of fuel per hour.

The Flying Legends of Victory tour will take place at the Air West Flight Support, Excel Flight Training Inc. building.