B-17

Very nice!

Looks like the "Sentimental Journey", hangar-ed at the CAF museum in Mesa, Arizona. Great catch.

The leaden sky, the seemingly deserted country airfield, the distant runways and tree line, together with the lith treatment, all conspire to give this a very strong period look. This very well might have been 1944 somewhere in England. It's that exclusionary background that raises this vintage aircraft photo above the rest.

Two summers ago I lingered at the end of a local airshow, waiting for the crowds to clear before making my own photos. Turns out the pilot and copilot of the displayed B-17G from California were also sitting at the same table. We got to talking, and they told me Seattle was their favorite airshow destination. Why, I asked?

"Because it's always cool, and gray, and overcast, and often raining, and once we get into Oregon and Washington over the green rural pastures and fields, with Puget Sound off in the distance, it's not hard to imagine we are flying over the English countryside on our way home having crossed the Channel after a mission."

That sense of history is what this photograph reminds me of...

To r.reeder - IIRC, this plane is based out of Arizona and does various airshows around the continent. RIP Neopan 400!

r.reeder said:

Looks like the "Sentimental Journey", hangar-ed at the CAF museum in Mesa, Arizona. Great catch.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what it is. Toured through western Canada this summer.

Great stuff, I always click on a thumbnail with an old aircraft!