Monday, October 18, 2010

Flying Fortress?

I saw one of these over Front Royal, VA this afternoon about 1 PM. At first I thought it was a balloon or blimp because it just seemed to hang there; I didn't think anything that big could move that slowly. It was within the air control area of Dulles Int'l airport. Is there some kind of airshow this weekend? Or maybe it was returning from an airshow elsewhere. Its course was south; maybe it was returning from Dayton, OH? It had four engines and the wingtips were rounded off from leading edge to trailing edge. Can't think of anything else it might be except a B-17.

Link to PDF of WWII aircraft silhouette book.

6 comments:

Rev. Paul said...

It looks like a B-17G to me; the straight vertical line beneath the chin would be the chin turret only added on the "G" models.

COOL.

drjim said...

Agreed!

Roberta X said...

Kewl!

Snakeeater said...

That was probably the B-17G called "Nine O Nine" that belongs to a group called the Collins Foundation. They are touring the B-17, a B-24 and a P-51. They were in MD a week ago and in Staunton, VA this past weekend.

Drang said...

BTW, the Collins Foundation is a 501(c)3, and last time they were out here they said the tickets for rides were tax deductible...

NotClauswitz said...

I've been up in it if it's the "Nine O Nine" - well worth the expense and not as damn noisy as the B-25 Mitchell.