Where to see the world’s remaining B-17s
Reader and friend, Cammy, visits the Lackland AFB B-17
If you could see one historical plane in 2023, which would you choose? Of course, the Richard Eager team is a little biased toward the world’s remaining B-17 beauties!
One inspired friend and reader went above and beyond, talking herself onto Lackland AFB. She recounted her visit: “There are very few B-17s out there for people to see. I couldn’t believe my luck that there was one an hour’s drive away! Then when we got to the gate, they said we couldn’t go in, so I told them about the book [Richard Eager] and why I wanted to traipse around “bomber row’ and a superior walked over and said “Let ‘em in”.” Success!
Very few B-17s remain intact and available for public viewing, and even fewer are still airworthy. You can browse the full list here.
You can head to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Dayton, OH) to see "Ole Betsy” (later "The Swoose”) which saw combat in the Pacific. Or you can see the training plane “Boeing Bee” at the Museum of Flight (Seattle, WA). Stars in your eyes? See Lt Gen Ira C Eaker’s personal command aircraft, “Starduster”, at the March Field Air Museum (Riverside, CA). Find yourself in the U.K.? It is extra special to see the B-17s through the British lens of appreciation at the Imperial War Museum Duxford and the Royal Air Force Museum London. Or catch one of the few airworthy B-17s at an airshow: “Yankee Lady”, “Sally B”, “Memphis Belle”, “Sentimental Journey”. You can’t mistake that gorgeous silhouette in the sky.
Lastly, should you find yourself near Lackland AFB, pay a visit the kind folks at the Lackland Airman Heritage Training Museum and say hello to “Heaven’s Above”!
Further Articles
Barbara (“Bobbie”) Evans Kinnear, daughter of Colonel Richard Ernest Evans, joins historian and author, James Holland, on his podcast, “We Have Ways of Making You Talk”