Best seat in the house for sightseeing. Maybe the worst seat on a bombing mission.

@jirons2709

4 жыл бұрын

I think ball turrets got it beat out slightly for the worst seat

@macieksoft

4 жыл бұрын

Tail gunners were the poor ones, they were first to get injured or killed when attacked by fighters.

@horacioruizortega9908

4 жыл бұрын

Dude, tbh I think tail gunner is the worst, they had the less probability to survive on the hole plane

@YellowAquarium

4 жыл бұрын

West Texan you got hit by flak the most

@reecem9367

4 жыл бұрын

macieksoft Tail Gunners had one of the higher survival rates as German pilots tried to avoid attacking the tail.

That is probably THE best seat in peace time aviation. The worst seat over Berlin. Bless them all who flew them

My grandfather was a B17 Bombardier in WWII...they were shot down 3 times and he made it back became a postman for many years!

@chpman2013

4 жыл бұрын

Shot down behind enemy lines?

@Shanidar1

4 жыл бұрын

@Gus VanHorn Lol man, an oldie but a goodie! ...and so very appropriate in this case.

@knarf_on_a_bike

4 жыл бұрын

David, thank your grandfather for me. We all owe him so much. . .

@first_last-

4 жыл бұрын

@Ronald Trump If you're gonna troll, you should work on being a little more subtle.

@Enzoxvx

4 жыл бұрын

@Ronald Trump burn

My 6th grade teacher, Mr Veenbore was a B17 bombardier in WW2 - England. He talked about some of his experiences. He once told us cubs, as he sat in his position in the B 17, with a full load of bombs on takeoff, he said that coming down the runway with trees getting closer and closer he would close his eyes & pray. "We always missed clipping/hitting the trees by just a few feet." As a children we didn't appreciate what those young men went through. Today...I get it! Mr. Veenbore is still my hero.

Can you imagine being in that thing on takeoff with a full load of bombs, men, armament, ammunition, fuel, radios, and rolling on perforated steel planking...... in the mud???

@scoop4363

4 жыл бұрын

23JUN2020 - Add to that, wondering if you'll ever come home? I'll bet a lot of breakfasts went uneaten on those mornings.

@milkywayexplorer942

4 жыл бұрын

No I can’t Saying yes would be a lie

@brianevans656

4 жыл бұрын

I know what you mean. Marston matting wasn't common at 8th AF fields in England. More common at fighter airfields in the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre of Operation in WW.II.

@knarf_on_a_bike

4 жыл бұрын

And imagine you're 19 years old. And your pilot is 24. I can't help crying when I think of what those kids went through, night after night. We owe so much. .

@jujitusuka

4 жыл бұрын

Flabba Noongah : er....ok....stay safe keep your tin foil hat on.....

On August 11, 2013, I rode in the nose of the B-17 "Sentimental Journey" at the Fargo airport. Looks similar, and BOY, what a ride! The noise was awesome!

@kencohagen4967

4 жыл бұрын

During WWII my father in law was an electrical engineer, which would be an electronics engineer in today’s world. He worked on several projects for the Navy including surface contact radar that our destroyers used to hunt down Nazi Uboats and sink them. He loved airplanes too, something we had in common. Shortly after I met my wife the Commemorative airforce held a dance just like they did in the 40’s, to raise money for their restoration efforts. When we got there there as row upon row of Beech 18’s and their derivatives C47’s a couple B 25’s and our Alastair, Sentimental Journey. As soon as he saw her my. Father in law ran straight for the B17, ducking under the ropes. Another gentleman about his age came up to him, and I thought we were taking a trip to the jail to bail him out, but the two of them started talking and talking and talking. Then Don, my father in law, motioned for me to come over and when I did he pointed to a football like device on the bottom of the fuselage, that was rounded on the front and pointed at the rear. He explained that this was a special antenna that he helped develop for night time bombing raids over Germany. Don said that this antenna would pick up three radio signals allowing the navigator to plot his position when he couldn’t see the t argent. The system was also used in the Gulf of Mexico, around the Florid peninsula, and on the west coast. We never got the chance to fly in a B17, but I did fly in a C47 that had flown paratroops over France the night before D-Day. It was an amazing flight, but sitting over the wing gave me no view of anything besides the wing and the engines exhaust. Next time I hope I can afford to pay for a good seat! I’m glad you hand the chance!

@kurtthecat3995

4 жыл бұрын

I rode in a B-17 and the noise is incredible. Something that does not come through in war movies.

@charleyharlan979

4 жыл бұрын

yep, sounds just like someone throwing Coca-Cola bottles at your head !

And to think, these planes were piloted by 19-21 year olds; now piloted by individuals in their fifties with a deep love and respect for history...

@timmotz2827

4 жыл бұрын

outcast668 The gunners and radio operators might have been 19-21 year olds, but the pilots, bombardiers, and navigators were officers and mostly in their mid to late twenties. The technical demands alone required more education.

@coldhell3580

4 жыл бұрын

The pilots were older, the young pilots were in the fighters. The RAF used to transfer pilots from fighters to bombers as they got older. I’m guessing the USAF did the same?

@hotrodray6802

4 жыл бұрын

My Buddy was the youngest B17 pilot in WWII. (confirmed) Died in '95. Served in the Pacific theatre.

@_u0nda928

4 жыл бұрын

@@hotrodray6802 You flew in these things? Holy shit, thank you for your service then. I can't even begin to imagine the horrors you witnessed during that war.

@gpapazac

4 жыл бұрын

@@hotrodray6802 how old are you?

B17 take off magnificent. As a English man that knows the history of the 8th airforce based here in the 2nd world war, there bravery and sacrifice won't be forgotten. Respect

@SuperEdge67

6 ай бұрын

Over paid, over sexed, over here!

@sqd37l

5 ай бұрын

@@SuperEdge67 and dead a lot of the time

a week ago,Christmas Eve ,i had the honor to fly on Sentimental Journey in the nose...from the the pilots bringing those engines on one at a time,deafing roar at takeoff into flight now i have awaking of the stories my father and uncle would tell of flying into the target...balls of steel...LOVE OF COUNTRY! A big THANK YOU to everyone involved with Sentimental Journey...

I rode up there once. Cost me $417.00, but it was the ride of a lifetime.

@counciousstream

4 жыл бұрын

Cheap for the experience

@jons3226

4 жыл бұрын

I got a ride on the Aluminum Overcast, we all rotated spots so we all got to take a turn in the bombardier's seat. Definitely worth it.

@hotrodray6802

4 жыл бұрын

Stella Over $1,000 per flight hour for gasoline today.

@hotrodray6802

4 жыл бұрын

Stella Costs about $8,000 to fillerup.

Damn she took off quick! Those 4 engines are no joke when the plane is unladen.

@joecrowaz

2 жыл бұрын

You could hear the gear come up before they got to the end of the runway 💪

One of the coolest vids I've EVER seen on youtube😀😀😀😀😀

@crffilmz7300

4 жыл бұрын

Same

@prg2812

4 жыл бұрын

I thought at 1st that the Bombardier was pushing a petrol lawnmower along waiting for the B-17 to take off. ;-))

One of the best sounds ever, an engine revving up. Be it a radial, a turbine, a V8 or a big ol harley. Puts a smile on every face, everytime

@davecrupel2817

4 жыл бұрын

Even a roller-cam v8 is hardly a match for the rumbling of a two-row turbo-supercharged R-2800 radial engine. And that's just at ground idle speed. The mighty camring (instead of camshaft) in that engine produces is second to none.

@Jedi391

2 жыл бұрын

Well…..maybe not the Harleys.

there is just something so special listen to the sound of those's 4 radial engines

@mkshffr4936

4 жыл бұрын

I used to live under the departure end of 16 at Flemming field where the Miss Mitchell was based. Those radials at take off power were fine music.

@hotrodray6802

4 жыл бұрын

Multiple R2800s are pretty awesome. 18 cyl each.

Outstanding! I flew in the Nine-O-Nine. So cool, a horrible tragedy of her loss a few years ago 😢

This is one of my favorite B-17s ever. Use to crawl inside it all the time when it was Aero Union. Air Tanker #17

What a treat! That was absolutely awesome. I love the B17.

Amazing I am impressed that such old technology still flies after more than 80 years

I am from Uruguay, 85. I rode in a DC-3 (Pluna Airlines) back in 1965 and the noise was considerable. Can imagine what it was like in a B-17. Then in 2008, while visiting some friends in Oyster Bay NY, I saw a vintage B-17 slowly overflying us, from ground level it wasn't that noisy.

Man, what a view!

Absolutely Beautiful and Breathtaking

Aaaaaaand adding this to the bucket list

this is music for my ears

This is the best video I've seen on KZread all year. What a fabulous virtual flight experience. Thank you.

That was AWESOME!!! Thank you🤙 God bless🙏

@rrussell8403

4 жыл бұрын

@Aussie Cockatoo Amen🙏🙏🙏

Never gets old watching this

What an amazing view!

Been there and it was indeed the best seat ever. Switched places with the fellow with me halfway through the flight. On the cabin wall was a small card with a picture of a USAAF officer. Bombardier, 2/Lt, 19 years old, killed on his first combat flight. Sobering thing to read. I was doing it for fun and returning. He did it for real and didn't come home alive.

Met an older gentleman in mkt, he always wore a B 17 ball hat. I spoke to him one day and asked he served as the ball t gunner, the gent was 5 2. No he said I got there before everyone else. He was the bombardier. Said he saw awful things on his canopy, I read between the lines! Then he stopped comming to the mkt!

Wow ! Breath taking ! Awesome view ! Kudos for view.

Nice. I’ve always tried to imagine what 300+ formed up B-17s headed off on a mission must’ve sounded like.

@SirCricket

4 жыл бұрын

I've been told, when the plane was tore up, barely holding altitude, seeing the White Cliff's was a sign you made it home!

I've crawled around some of those old warbirds. Those airmen had courage beyond what most can imagine.

Front row seat! Fantastic, thanks for sharing man!

@jimwind7589

4 жыл бұрын

It could of gone longer. Was really cool

Superb! Thank you!

Its hard to comprehend being sat in that position for 8 hours a day, nearly every day for 3 years.....if you were lucky. I'm a proud Brit, and proud of the RAF......but just as proud of all the Yanks who fought and died along side us. Look at the world today, was all the bloodshed worth it, on all sides ?.

*GLAD TO C THEM IN 2020* 😍😍😍

Where I grew up in England we would occasionally have Lancasters and or Spitfires and Hurricanes fly over for holidays and special events. The roar is incredible and yes, you can feel the rumble. God bless all the men that flew in these magnificent aircraft around the world and risked everything 80 years ago! Thank you 🙏

My Godfather flew with the 388th. . Survived 35 missions. ...Never flew again! RIP!

Awesome! No greater plane ever produced like the B 17.

With all of the aviation content I watch, how have I not seen this sooner?! Awesome perspective!

Amazing! Hard to imagine doing that as a young man in the 1940's knowing that "plexiglass" was the only thing between you and the coming flak....

@clarencegreen3071

6 ай бұрын

Also, the fuselage skin itself was only thin aluminum about 1/32 inch (0.8 mm) thick. That would not have much effect in stopping flak or a bullet. Scary, indeed.

Oh man that’s gotta be awesome!!

Thanks a lot 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

My grandfather was a mechanic during WW2. He was stationed on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska & worked on B-2s.

Treated myself for Father's Day about 10 years ago and took a ride on the Liberty Belle was quite a thrill. To bad she burned up a few years ago

Front row seat! Thanks for sharing and greets from the Netherlands, T.

Saw Sally B at an air show here in the UK back in the seventies. When she turned around to start her take off roll she nearly blew the crowd down. The smell of fuel was intoxicating and she covered us with smuts from the engines.

About 1960 my Dad's good friend had been a B24 pilot in the Pacific. He told stories of flying off the runway end at the cliff and dropping full flaps so it would fly across the waves for miles to get it to climb.... About 4 tons over gross. We knew several crewmen and pilots and many WWI, WWII, Korea veterans face to face. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

@hotrodray6802

4 жыл бұрын

They were all productive citizens who did not piss their lives away. Awesome men in every aspect of their lives.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

My Dad was a navigator on these things sat behind this position to the left side. Had to find their way across the North Atlantic, Gander, Greenland, Iceland, by compass, clock, and sextant, find the radio beacon in Stornoway Scotland, and on to Valley, Wales to deliver the brand new plane. Then go to their assigned base by train. And fly 35+ missions.

Best seat in the house!!!

Magnificent!

Best seat in the house RIP 909

This is RIGHT we I would be if I got a chance!! GREAT video!!

Could you imagine being in that seat with zeros flying straight at you or the German fighters? Atleast if you were a gunner you had a chance to shoot it down.

@mpk6664

4 жыл бұрын

The bombardier was a gunner too.

@gamerkay5791

3 жыл бұрын

its hard shooting down planes at such a high altitude

Fantastic...... Thank you veterans

That was awesome!! Talk about “the best seat in the house”!!!!

The pilot should sit down there... great view.

Absolutely stunning sound xx

Awesome video !!!

One of the best POV vids ever!!👍👍

Best seat in the house👍🏻🇺🇸

Oh my god, The noise of the engine.... Is.... Fantastic and astonishing to hear...

The best seat in the plane for a joyride but likely the most exposed and scariest place on during a bombing mission.

whenever i watch videos of the B.17 i always think about the brave men who flew them..

Great watch...💪😎

Great video. I'm smiling at the sound

These ol girls saved the world.

Best view in that plane, but most dangerous as well!

Gonna be going up in one of these bombers in about a month, l'll be in the navigator seat, very much looking forward to it.

@JuniperTrekker

6 жыл бұрын

The sound of those four engines revving up is quite impressive. Enjoy!

@fredkruse9444

5 жыл бұрын

How was it?

Incredible

Got to take a flight in the Texas Raider B-17 at Ellington AFB near Houston in ‘86 or ‘87. I was humming the theme of 12 oclock high most of the flight.

What a beautiful thing

Pretty cool. Definitely a perspective you don't get from the window seat in a passenger plane.

Legends says he is still flying...

If any of you see The Best Years of Our Lives listed starring Dana Andrews and Fredric March among others, about WW2 soldiers returning home after the war, there's a good scene of a couple of the men getting a flight home in a B17 and sitting in the nose section. The scene might be on KZread but I haven't looked, but it was a good scene from a good movie.

My cousin Mike Mahoney was a Bombadier Pilot in WW2...shot down over the North Sea..captured and imprisoned to Germany...repatriated and became an actor ..one movie was with Jerry Lewis

Don't get me wrong, I don't envy the young lads that had to do this heading off knowing they probably wouldn't come back. But damn, can you imagine how exciting that must have been considering most of these lads had never flown before? What a view! Great video!

@gpapazac

4 жыл бұрын

Just imagine being in this seat and seeing a Luftwaffe fighter plane coming at you. Damn

@rockstarJDP

4 жыл бұрын

@@gpapazac I'd certainly need a change of underwear for sure

Day time missions , dodging flak , enemy fighters coming towards you three a breast from the front . The same on the way home if your aircraft by some miracle survived all that . Now that’s what you call balls of steel !!

@SuperEdge67

6 ай бұрын

Night missions were more dangerous.

That's the sound of freedom.

'Slipping the surly bonds of Earth', seems pretty much the same as taking off in a micro light excepting with less historic significance & a lot colder. Hell I love prop driven aircraft - Thank You, stunning vantage point.

i got the chance to ride in one of these legendary beasts... sadly it was the one that crashed in connecticut a few years later.

Great view, magical flight ! 👍👍👍👍

Wow! What a thrill that would be.👍🏻😀

My jaw literally dropped on the take off roll.

My Dad was a bombardier on the B17 in WW2. He never talked about much though.

Wow. So cool. What a privaledge!

That must have been fun. Great video.

Had that seat in the Memphis Belle Titusville Warbirds Airshow,great ride.

Beyond cool, this is a big taste of history!

How awesome! The fight of a lifetime!! I'm so jealous!! Happy flights!

My grandfather flew Mig 17 for the USSR lol. I wanted to become a naval aviator but had a medical issue as a kid, so I was disqualified from joining the navy ;(

Too cool. If you flew over the water towers, I was probably waving at you.

That had to be scary as hell when trying to do bomb runs and enemy fighters were around. You'd feel so exposed and obvious

damn that sound at 1:00

Wow. Amazing stuff. Historic.

The best veiw ever

Best view during a crash too.

Sign me up. I'd ride that all day.

I definitely wouldnt be able to deal with the kind of fear and anticipation that the soldiers in these craft must have felt.

Wow!