by Bea Peterson
When Aaron Burdick of North Hoosick, received the flyer from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) offering tours of a WW II B-17 Flying Fortress that would be stopping at the Schenectady, NY, Airport, he knew he had to go see it. Burdick was too young to have flown one in the big war, but he did fly one in the late 60s that was converted to a crop duster.
The EAA has completely restored a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, Army Air Corps serial number 44-85740 and called it the Aluminum Overcast. From 1935 to 1945, 12,732 B-17s were built. Today about a dozen are still flying. The EAA is taking their plane across the country, stopping at airports and offering WW II veterans and aviation buffs an opportunity to tour the giant plane or take a short flight in it. Burdick just wanted to see it.
He has a lifelong love of flying. “I’ve always enjoyed aviation,” he said. As a kid, living in Petersburgh, he built model planes. As a Boy Scout he joined an Aviation Explorer Post. At 16 he had his pilot’s license. After a stint in the Air Force as a truck mechanic he was a commercial pilot out of Round Lake and then North Adams, MA. He also did charter flights out of Bennington, VT. “Back in ’62 a flight cost $13 an hour,” he said. He would do crop dusting in Florida in the summer.
After WW II more than 7,000 retired Army bombers, fighters and training planes were left standing row to row at the old Kingman Army Airfield five miles east of Kingman, Arizona. It was the world’s greatest concentration of aircraft in one area at one time, covering five square miles. The planes were sold. B-17s sold for $13,750 apiece. In 1968, Burdick got to fly a B-17 that was converted to a crop duster. “That plane could spray a 120 foot swath,” he said. He worked with the US Department of Agriculture on a fire ant eradication program. There were reports of people eaten by those ants, he said. They couldn’t use a fast acting poison on them. “If the ants saw another ant die from something it ate, they wouldn’t eat it. The USDA used ground up corn cobs treated with a slow acting poison, which worked. In the south he flew Fire Patrols from January 1 to April 15. “After that the watermelons, peanuts and soybeans came in,” and it was crop dusting until August. Then he was off from August to January. For years now he has spent time between North Hoosick and Florida.
Then, on August 12, he and Joyce Glaspell went to Schenectady to see that B-17. Burdick, an EAA member, told the crew of his crop dusting experience with the same model plane. They invited him to join them on their flight the following day to their next destination, Lawrence, MA. Three other people were taking the flight and they were driving a rental car back to Schenectady. Burdick couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that! On Wednesday, Joyce drove him to Schenectady for the flight. When one of the passengers didn’t show up, she was invited to fly with them. The flight was a little intimidating for her. “I didn’t know they had so many holes!” she said, referring to the gun sites. Burdick, who has a lifetime pilot’s license, hasn’t flown in several years. He said he got the thrill of a lifetime when they turned the controls of the B-17 over to him. He flew the aircraft for more than a half hour. “The plane has all new gauges and a GPS,” he said. “It’s much better than the old military gauges. “That GPS is really something! There’s a red line with a little plane on it. You just have to keep the plane on the line!” Burdick admits he loved the 20th century but he’s not geared for the 21st century. Seems like he stepped into it big time last week.
Facts About The B-17
The B-17 was designed by Boeing. The EAA plane was delivered on May 18, 1945. The B-17 required a crew of 10. Pilot, Co-pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, Flight Engineer (top turret gunner), Radio Operator two Waist Gunners, Tail Gunner and Ball Turret Gunner.
The B-17G is powered by four 1,200 horsepower Wright Cyclone nine cylinder, radial, air-cooled type engines with a 16:9 gear ratio. The propellers are three-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers, 11 feet, 7 inches in diameter.
Empty, the plane weighs 34,000 lbs. Wartime gross weight was 65,500 lbs. Fuel capacity is 1,700 gallons. The plane has a range of 1,850 but could be extended when equipped with “Tokyo Tanks” which provided a total capacity of 3,630 gallons of fuel.
The wing span is 103 feet, 9 inches. The length is 74 feet, 4 inches, The height is 19 feet, 1 inch. The service ceiling 35,600 feet.
The armament was thirteen Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine guns with a fire rate of approximately 13 rounds per second. No gun on a B-17 carried more than one minute’s supply of ammunition.
The bomb load depended on the types of bombs. Maximum normal load could go to 8,000 lbs. If a B-17 was fitted with special external racks, the maximum normal short range bomb load could go as high as 17,600 lbs.
Maximum speed is 300 m.p.h. at 30,000 ft. Maximum continuous speed is 263 m.p.h. at 25,000 ft. Cruising speed is 170 m.p.h.. Landing speed is 74 m.p.h.. Rate of Climb is 37 minutes to 20,000 ft.