"Viperdoc" wrote in message
. net...

One thing I did notice was the B-25, which was bare metal.

Wow. Last time I was out there they didn't have a B-25. There's a guy
that owns a log truck company in Oregon who has a B-25. He's larger than
the average airman, so he used the top turret out of a Liberator so he could
make his way to the pilot seat. That bird has yellow cowls and is restored
immaculately. Really neat buy, but I gotta wonder how hard all the timber
economy is really doing out here if a trucking owner can afford a B-25!

They also had a windshield wiper on the bombardier's window in the nose,
but not on the B-17- first time I noticed this up close.

When the '17 was flying they had all kinds of equipment such as the chin
turret controls and things that they left out for weight. I wonder if
they've put it all in. The FAA made them install passenger seats in the
waist in order to carry passengers, which looked ridiculous. Trivia about
that bomber is that there's doubt that the serial number is original; the
airplane's logbook had entries blacked out by the military because it was
carried some sort of secret radio equipment after the war. Apparently,
it's in a James Bond movie too but I have no idea which. I have an old
post-war photo of it when it was assigned to the Japanese defense force or
whatever it was. Whatever its real designation was, it was one of the
last B-17s ever made. The manual bomb bay opening crank is located opposite
that of just about every other B-17 built.



-c