War Birds 12-14 February Venice Gondolier Article

11 Feb War Birds 12-14 February Venice Gondolier Article

GO EVENTS THIS WEEK

Let’s Go! ·                                                                       E/N/C/V February 11 – 17, 2015

WWII bombers return to Venice this week

By KIM COOL

FEATURES  EDITOR

Thursday, Feb.12,a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a Consolidated B-24 Liberator and a North American TP-51C Mustang will return to the Venice Munic!pal Airport,150 Airport Ave.E.,for a four-day stay.

The occasion is the 26th an-nual Collings Foundation Wings of Freedm Tour. Of special interest to Venetians is the P-51 Mustang, a

single-seat fighter escort used to train pilots to be escort fighters in World War II. The plane coming in to Venice is thought t() be_ the- only two-seated

P-51 still flying.             .·                 –

• The extra seat offers the opportunity for a person to actually take the controls ofthe P-51 flights are $2,200 per half hour and $31200 for a full hour.
• Flights aboard the larger planes also can be

arranged.Iwas able to fly-into Venic.e aboard the B-24 a few years ago, sitting on the floor of the

fuselage with my seat belt strapped for take-off and landing but, during the flight,free to walk around and 5ee the sights as we flew low along the COi!St to Venice.

Viewing is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.Thursday, assuming the planes arrive by noon as they usually do.Friday and Saturday,viewing will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.Sunday, planes can be seen from 9 a.m.to

. noon, before the three planes take off for the next stop.

Aviation fans return year after year to see these r.are planes which have been fully restored for their use as a flying museum by the Collings Foundation.

The original cost oUhe P-51 Mustangs was

• about$51,000 according to a Collings spokesman . Thousands were built and u-sed in the war by the British and Americans,and also by the Chinese

against the Japanese. These days a fully restored · plane would-sell for as much as $1 million. The one coming to Venice is known as “Betty Jane;’na·med in honor of Col. Charles M.Mccorkle, a P-51 pilot

with six confirmed kills in a P-.51 of the same name. Mccorkle was the.commander of the 31st fighter group that was based in Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily and Italy,according to information from the Collings Foundation.

It serves as the escort plane for the two bombers on the tour.

The Liberator,built in 1944 inTexas, is the”only fully restored and flying” plane of its kind flying over America as a living history museum. Itwas purchased about 1981, disassembled, and taken to England where it was purchased by Dr. Robert Collings and shipped to the U.S. where Collings was pressured by local B-24 crewmen to restore it to fly\ng condition. Restoration took 97,000 hours over some five years.

c;11::1=•::ICICE::::llC:;m=:m::111::m:=11c::1cm:::1=11 The B-24 was named “Witchcraft” in honor of the 8th

Air Force, which flew in the European Theater during

the war.

Completed too late to serve in WWII, the B-17 was used for transport, subjected to three nuclear

explosions in 1952,”cooled off” for 13 years and flew again as the Yucca Lady for 20 years before being acquired by the foundation in 1986 and restored to its original wartime configuration. Itwas named “Nine-0-Nine” in honor of the 91st Bomb Group, 323rd squadron plane that 11completed 140 missions without an abort or loss of a crewman.”The original “Nine-0-Nine;’which had more than 600 patched holes, was scrapped ·soon after flying back to the U.S. at the end of the war.

A 30-minute flight on either the B-17 or the B-24 is $450 per person. For reservations, call 800-568-

4. Such flights normally occur before and after the

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLLINGS FOUNDATION

P-51 Mustangs were used for pilot training at Venice during World War II. This one, modified as a two-seater, can be used to offer 30·or

60-minute rides while the planes are in Venice. The cost is $2,200—for a 30-m– inute ride.

hours when the planes are displayed on the tarmac

Admission is free for WWII veterans and there are discounted ratesfor s_chool groups.Admission for all others tocheck outthe.,plan·es1both inside and out, is

$12 for adults and $6 for those 12 and yeunger.

For more information about this and other stops on the tour, or to learn more about the foundation and its planes, visit www.CollingsFoundati on.org.