Flying Fortress Visits Tyler
Posted/updated on: November 9, 2011 at 2:42 am
TYLER – A bit of history is on display at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport. “Aluminum Overcast,” the Experimental Aircraft Association’s restored B-17 bomber, has stopped in Tyler during its “Salute to Veterans” national tour. It will be at the Tyler airport through Wednesday. For a fee you can tour the aircraft and, weather permitting, even fly in it.
This Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is one of only 13 still flying in the world. This plane was one of the last, built in 1945, and therefore never made it to combat. But its sister aircraft pounded Nazi Germany day in and day out, with relentless air raids that softened up Europe for an eventual allied invasion. Carrying 10 men on missions that were hours long, nearly 13,000 B-17’s were built in ten years, and 5500 of them were shot down over Europe and the Pacific, with a loss of 45,000 crewmembers.
