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A site dedicated to my favorite WWII aircraft
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| Fuddy Duddy | |
  U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt Angela Stafford "Fuddy Duddy," at the Wings of Eagles Air Show in Big Flats, NY, is owned and operated by the National Warplane Museum in Elmira, NY, and is one of only nine B-17s still flying. Occasionally a B-17 Flying Fortress can be seen flying over the American countryside during airshows and training missions. At a recent 50th Anniversary Air Show in Big Flats, NY, several members of the original WW II Fuddy Duddy crew gathered to reminnice and share war stories. At just over 100 feet and grossing more than 30 tons it was the largest aircraft of it's day. It first saw combat in the pacific at the end of a long ferry flight from California when they flew into the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. The first Amerian B-17 flew in Europe in 1942. They carried the war to the heart of Germany and were loved by their crews for bringing them home despite extensive battle damage. A bomber crews' tour was 25 missions, one out of ten went down on every mission. One third of the total B-17 production of 12,731 went down during the war, and the Eigth and Fifteenth Air Forces' personnel losses totaled almost one hundred thousand men. |