Liberty Belle was the name of several individual combat Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of World War II. The first Liberty Belle B-17 (serial number 42-30096) crashed near Wakes Colne after an accidental on-board fire on November 30, 1943; while the BQ-7 Aphrodite variant (42-30039) named Liberty Belle against the Heligoland U-boat pens "was hit by flak and crashed" on October 15, 1944. There was a Liberty Belle (42-31610) and a Liberty Bell attached to the 91st Bomb Group (Heavy), at Bassingbourne. <dailies of the 324th bomb squadron, 16 July 1944> [2] A third Liberty Belle (42-97849) landed in Belgium with heavy damage on February 14, 1945, during an Oil Campaign raid; and the combat Liberty Belles were commemorated by two B-17s which used the name, with one still remaining as a static display. Miss Liberty Belle (44-83690) is displayed at the Grissom Air Museum, and the Liberty Foundation flew a commemorative Liberty Belle constructed from two damaged B-17s (non-combat 44-85734 and aft of 44-85813) from 2004 until 2011 when it was destroyed in a fire after an emergency landing.
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The B-17G (SN 44-85734)[2] did not see combat in World War II, and was originally sold on June 25, 1947, as scrap to Esperado Mining Co. of Altus, Oklahoma; it was then sold again later that year for $2,700 to Pratt & Whitney, who operated the B-17 as a heavily modified test bed[3] (similar to 44-85747 and 44-85813).[4] Following these flights, it was donated to the Connecticut Aeronautical Historic Association, where a tornado on October 3, 1979, blew another aircraft onto the B-17's mid-section, breaking the fuselage.
The B-17 was eventually purchased by aviation enthusiast Don Brooks, who formed the Liberty Foundation to exhibit the plane as the Liberty Belle. Restoration began in 1992 with parts from another damaged B-17 (44-85813), performed by Tom Reilly and company/Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum (aka "Bombertown USA"), located at that time at Kissimmee Gateway field, Kissimmee, Florida. She returned to the air on December 8, 2004, and had been touring the air show circuit since then. The Liberty Foundation also planned an historic overseas tour in July 2008 along the northern ferry route to England.
On the morning of June 13, 2011, Liberty Belle made a forced landing in Oswego, Illinois, after taking off from Aurora Municipal Airport in Sugar Grove, Illinois. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot of a T-6 Texan chase plane informed Liberty Belle's pilot that the B-17 inboard left wing was on fire and advised an immediate landing. The bomber landed successfully in a nearby field and the seven people aboard were able to evacuate without injury, but the fire spread and the plane was destroyed.[5]
The 1944 B-24J Liberty Belle II (44-41234) flew 29 combat missions[6] in the 22nd Bomb Group (33rd Bomb Squadron),[7] while the B-29 Liberty Belle II (42-94045) was shot down[8] in the first bomb raid against Balikpapan,[9] after being in Herington, Kansas, during April 1945.[10]
| External media | |
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| Images | |
| 1950 with T-34 turboprop | |
| 2001 restoration | |
| Audio | |
| 2011 incident (LiveATC.net) | |
| Videos | |
| 2009 taxiing (vimeo) | |
| 2011 fire (CNN) | |
| 2011 fire (youtube) | |