B-17 Bomber at the Dayton Airport this weekend
One of only 12 flying B-17s left in the U.S. is visiting Dayton, and you can fly in it this weekend!
Event details
* this page may be updated if event is repeated in the future *
B-17 Bomber at the Dayton Airport this weekend
The Liberty Foundation’s 2017 Salute to Veterans Tour is in Dayton this weekend with Boeing B-17 Bomber "Madras Maiden". The B-17 will be at the Stevens Aviation Hangar, located at 3500 Hangar Drive off Wright Drive at Dayton International Airport on Saturday, July 15, and Sunday July 16.
To experience what it was like to ride in a B-17, and get a bird's eye view of Dayton, tour flights are scheduled between 10am and 2pm. For those wishing to see the plane on the ground, ground tours will be available between 2.30pm and 6pm. Ground tours are free of charge. The cost to reserve a seat on one of the flights is $450 for non Liberty Foundation members and $410 for foundation members. Call 918-340-0243 for more details.
Dubbed the "Flying Fortress", the Boeing B-17 is by far the most famous bomber of World War II. More than 12,700 B-17's were produced between 1935 and 1945, but more than a third were lost during the war. Today, fewer than 100 B-17 airframes exist and fewer still are in airworthy condition.
This restored B17, nicknamed the Madras Maiden, never saw combat. Built in 1944, the B-17 was assigned right here in the Miami Valley, at Wright Field. The aircraft spent its entire military career from 1944-1959 as a research and development aircraft. Before finally being restored, the bomber was used to transport fresh produce between Florida and the Caribbean, flown under contract with the United States Department of Agriculture, and owned by three different aviation museums.
Today the aircraft is owned by the Liberty Foundation, a 501(c) (3) non-profit. According to the foundation, flying the B-17 costs approximately $5000 per flight hour. The Liberty Foundation began to operate the “Madras Maiden” in 2016 and flies to continue their mission of honoring our veterans, educating current and future generations as to the high price of freedom, and to preserve our aviation history.
