June 24th, 2012
The Collings Foundation a non-profit educational foundation, recently visited Washington state on their “Wings of Freedom Tour” (where you can get a close up look at the aircraft and for a fee also fly in them). This tour showcases World War Two aircraft including a Consolidated B-24J Liberator, Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress and the worlds only dual-control North American TP-51C Mustang.
I visited these aircraft during a visit to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle. Unfortunately due to insurance issues the B-17G was operating from a different airport where it was taking passengers up on joy flights on this day. Luckily the TP-51C was able to fly customers at Boeing Field so I got to see it take off and land.
The B-24J was only on static display. This provided an opportunity to do a walk through the inside of the B-24J from the waist gunner positions, through the bomb bay to just below the cockpit. It was very interesting to get a close up look at a rare flying example of this classic World War Two bomber.
