B17 Flying Fortress Makes Stop in Montgomery
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A little piece of World War Two history has made a stop in Montgomery. A historic b17 bomber is on display at Montgomery aviation and we were able to get a look inside the 70 year old aircraft.
There are only a handful of these B17s left and this is one of them. Every detail still the same as it was back during World War II.
It looks straight out of the movies…but this is the real thing. A B17 Flying Fortress is in Montgomery. The four-engine aircraft was used as a bomber during World War II. Stan Tew is the president of the local Experimental Aircraft Association and worked to bring the B17 to the River Region.Â
“Seeing it in person gives you an idea of what it was really like,” he explains. “And to ride in it, think about being 20 years old and spending 10 hours on a bombing raid and coming back and not knowing if youre ever going to come back.”
Charles Kelley doesn’t have to imagine what it was like because he lived it.Â
“This is where I stayed for 25 combat missions over Germany,” he explains.
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Kelley, born and raised in Elmore County, joined the service when he was 18 and flew in B17s, over Western Europe.Â
“You sit in a rocker type thing with the guns right between your legs and you control it with hydraulic control sticks. I was i was able to fly 25 missions in the ball in Europe, mostly over Germany, and survive and get back home in good shape.Â
Tew says It’s because of veterans like Kelley that America is a free country.Â
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“I believe that our country has lost a good deal of its patriotism and we need to come out and talk to these people who did these remarkable things to preserve the freedom that we have today,” he says.
And you can come take a ground or air tour of this B17. It will be in town through Sunday. Ground tours are $10 a person, $20 for a famil, and children under 8 years old are free. For pricing on air tours, just visit b17.org
