Yes, we can ! just see how long the plane stays stable on one wheel ....

Brian Hoefs Close encounters of the ******** kind.

Yes! Intact is one word. Didn’t realize I put a space where it didn’t belong.

Yeh, use to go there in the seventies, eighties and nineties . How is the old place doing these days, good racing?

If a pilot knew he had to make a belly landing , the Ball Turret could be unbolted and jettisoned but it took time . Removal of the turret reduced the possibility of breaking the fuselage .

Thanks for story. I live in England. We remember well these brave fliers. Give our thanks to your grandfather. A hero. What base did he fly from?

@@cvtsboy I honestly don't know he mostly shows pics from it doesn't give to many spacific story's he doesn't like remembering it and I really can't blame him I will be seeing him this Thursday and I will look at his book that my cousin made of all of his info she has what plane and all the info in it I never really pressed the question as I didnt want to bring back bad memorys I'm sure he lost alot of people he called friends there but I will pass on thanks from you and will get back to you on where he was at

@Andrew Heller 9

Not to be rude but you do realise that the man can just climb out into the interior of the fuselage through the hatch in the top of the ball turret. It would have been a different story if they had lost all hydraulics and the turret had been stuck in a position where he wasn't able to open the hatch. And also the gear malfunctioned so the pilot couldn't lower it (although there is a manual crank to do it without hydraulics). In that case he would have died, and there wouldn't have been anything they could have done for him. But in this case the ball turret is in the normal position where the man can climb out. Also one gear was down and by a miracle didn't colapse on landing, protecting the turret. Tbh the ball turret gunner was one of the most dangerous jobs, as being on the bottom of the plane meant you where more vulnerable to flak.

Fire was a real concern with avgas

Those are just regular aircraft mechanics

I don't think there's to many left to restore

There aren't. But the engineering drawings are available. Flug Werk is building new Fw-190D Shrikes, and there's a guy in North Carolina building a B17 from scratch who might need an extra pair of hands... Anybody else besides me know how to rivet???

Heroes

It sounds too tinny or brassy. More likely a bass saxophone, clarinet or flute.

@@riproar11 Sounds just like any bassoon I've heard.

My grandfather said they were detachable, and carried in bowling ball bags, one per.

In an emergency you were allowed to land at any field you could reach. I'm not finding the incident report on this one at the moment, but it could be they had another issue that made it wise to land at 109 B.

@Art Anson When my dad was stationed in Turkey with the USAAF 19th Weather Squadron during WW2, he was given a per diem of $15--in addition to his salary! (My uncle was a B-17 ground crew chief with the 8th Air Force during the war.)

@Art Anson He told me. He said he and the other Weather Service noncoms were making more than the Turkish generals. They used to dine at Karpic's restaurant frequently. My dad was overseas from VE Day until early 1946.

Most likely a bass saxophone as it has a brassy sound.

Jane Book the ball turret guy does not occupy the turret during takeoff nor landing. In this crisis everyone but the pilots gather in the radio compartment just aft of the bomb bay. The sit facing aft with their backs against the bulkhead . This allows quick evacuation out the top of the plane. You Tube has a great training film on this scenario of ditching in the B17.

@@donaldparlettjr3295 True, but there were tragic situations where the ballturret had been damaged and the guy in it couldn't get out. I'm sure you can imagine what happened to the poor guy, when they had to crashland...

Mate you seem to be the only person in the comments that did 😂

They may have opened it to be sure it didn't jam shut should the fuselage buckle on landing.

No it wasn't, it opens clearly at 0:55 then crewmen exit at 0:58. For the first bit of the video before 0:55 it is clearly closed.

What an earth are you talking about you can literally see the door in front of the vertical stabilizer open at 0:55 and then crewmen exit at 0:58. Also it is impossible to land a plane with such skill without a pilot with the technology of that era (and yes I know about the primitive autopilot that the B17's had but where talking about landing it with next to no damage with one landing gear up)