Carnett: Vintage aircraft take the skies, capturing our imagination
World War II bombers emit a beautiful sound.
That is, as long as you’ve never been a resident of Cologne or Coventry — or Berlin. But to 21st century ears, their melodious growl is, well, awe-inspiring.
I heard that sound repeatedly over my Costa Mesa home a few weeks back. I ran into my front yard each time the engines roared directly overhead.
Dutch author and Christian speaker Corrie ten Boom spoke publicly of hearing the droning of hundreds of bombers flying over Holland on bombing missions from England to Germany during World War II. I stood in her third-story bedroom in Haarlem many years later, trying to imagine that sound.
The Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour brought rare bomber and fighter aircraft in May to John Wayne Airport at the Lyon Air Museum. Aircraft on public display included a B-24J Liberator, a B-17 Flying Fortress and a full dual control P-51C Mustang.
Thirty-minute flights went for $450 each.
The foundation’s B-24J is the only remaining operating craft of its type in the world.
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During the air show weekend, my wife and I went to JWA to take a short hop to Phoenix. While awaiting our flight, I watched the B-24J take off and land several times.
Crewed by seven to 10 personnel during the war, the twin-tailed heavy bomber had a wingspan of 110 feet, a length of 67 feet and a height of 17 feet, 11 inches.
I noticed a strange optical phenomenon regarding its dimensions: As I watched the Liberator fly over my house it looked massive, but sitting on the runway it appeared squatty compared to modern commercial jetliners.
A friend’s father, a navigator, flew 23 missions over Europe in a Liberator during the war. He returned safely to England after each one.
More Liberators were built during the war than any other American aircraft, nearly 18,500.The bomber was powered by four Pratt and Whitney 14-cylinder radial engines, generating 4,800 horses. Ben-Hur had just 4.
The Liberator had 11 machine guns, carried a maximum bomb load of 8,000 pounds. It traveled at a top speed of 303 miles per hour. It flew in the wake of the legendary Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
The Liberator surpassed the B-17 in several key performance categories, including speed, range and bomb load.
The bomber had a maximum range of 3,500 miles and saw action in all major theaters of the war. It became the standard American heavy bomber in the Pacific and one of the principal aircraft employed by the Allies in their bomber offensive against Germany.
The airplane did have its detractors, however. It was said that the B-17 was easier to fly and was sturdier than the Liberator. Some crew members called it the “Flying Coffin.” It possessed just one exit, near the tail. It was nearly impossible for a flight crew to escape a crippled B-24.
One of my favorite films is William Wyler’s 1946 classic, “The Best Years of Our Lives.” I first saw it 19 years after its release in a Seoul, South Korea, movie house. I was stationed there with the U.S. Army.
The film records experiences of American veterans returning stateside after the war.
My favorite moment is the bomber graveyard scene.
Dana Andrews’ character, an Army Air Force captain and bomber crew member, climbs into a mothballed craft and sits in the nose gun turret. For a moment, he experiences a flashback and is transported to the skies over Europe. That moment says all that need be said about our country’s sacrifice and the quality of its Greatest Generation.
As a kid in the early 1950s, I’d climb into the turrets of several mothballed bombers sitting at the end of the Orange County Airport runway. My buddies and I regularly crawled over the rusting hulks.
Note to the last remaining B-24J: I vow to salute you every time you fly over my house!
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JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.
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