The B-17, Liberty Belle, took to the air for the first time in almost four decades on 8 December 2004 putting the flying back into Flying Fortress again. Don Brooks, founder of the Liberty Foundation, was on hand to see the maiden flight as she circled over the former Flying Tigers Warbird Museum (having been clobbered into temporary closure by a number of consecutive hurricanes) at the Kissimmee Gateway airport in Florida where she had spent the last 14 years under restoration.

USAAF serial number 44-85734 has not seen the wind over her wings since 1967 when she was put on static display at the Bradley/New England Air Museum in Connecticut. The B-17 has made several attempts to become airborne on her own over the past years. In 1979 a tornado hit the New England museum, causing several planes to fly into each other and severely damaged her airframe. Liberty Belle almost took off again during the Florida’s 2004 summer of storms when Hurricane Charley ripped through central Florida damaging Tom Reilly’s facility where she has been since 1990.

Liberty Belle has undergone several major “face lifts” since her roll out from the Lockheed-Vega plant in Burbank, California in May 1945. Originally built as a “G” model she found herself put into storage after the war barely escaping the scrap yard. In 1947, 44-85734 was transformed by Boeing into N5111N; a flying test bed for the Pratt & Whitney turbo prop research and development program. From 1949 until 1965 N5111N flew a 1000 hours as a 5 engine 299Z model with a XT34-P turboprop mounted on her nose where the bubble nose use to be.  Liberty Belle found her way to Tom Reilly’s restoration facility in Florida in 1990 where the 80,000 plus hour restoration work began in 1992. Visitors to his Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum witnessed it gradual metamorphosis through the years as the project slowly progressed.

Work on the project has been intermittent through the years with the most dramatic push for completion occurring since Liberty Foundation purchased the project in 2002. The B-17 is the flagship for Liberty Foundation, a not-for-profit 501c3 organization whose purpose is to give history a future by honoring our veterans, educating our youth and preserving our aviation heritage. Don Brooks’ father, Elton D. Brooks, flew in the 390th BG as a tail gunner in the original B-17 Liberty Belle during WWII. His 39 missions that took him over the beaches of Normandy on D-Day through the fall of Berlin in 1944 inspired Don to restore a B-17 not only in his honor but to honor all the veterans who served. The Liberty Foundation is making plans for its National Tour of the 14th Flying Fortress to grace the skies. [ANN Thanks Kathryn (KT) Budde-Jones and Chuck Gardner for the update.]

FMI: www.libertyfoundation.org, www.warbirdmuseum.com