B-25 or B-24 Rides

[Wood-SS]

When will a B-24 or 25 be touring Colorado? Iv'e flew in a B-17 which was great, but would you recommend a ride on one of these two planes?

[ramon]

No, you'd absolutely hate a ride in a B-25 or 24. Horrible to say the least.

OF COURSE, you'd love it! When I lived full time in Southern California, I had the great privilege of visiting the Ontario Air Museum owned by Ed Maloney and later his Planes of Fame in Chino. The Gathering of Eagles airshow back in the late 70's allowed me the opportunity to obtain, through friends, rides in several aircraft.

The greatest rush was flying ride along in a P 51. The speed, the power was amazing. WOW! is all I can say over 34 years later. Riding in the B-25 which had been converted to a movie camera ship was fantastic as was the B-24D. I came within a hair of flying in FIFI, the CAF B-29 back in the day, but just missed out. I'll always be sad about that.

You've already ridden in a B-17 so you're already familiar with the sight, sounds and smells.

If you have the opportunity to do so, go for the rides. You'll always carry the memories. If you have a little guy in you life, try to bring him or her along as well. They sure won't forget either.

I wish I could show you the pictures I have of my experiences around these wonderful aircraft, but they're all slides. Sorry.

Cheers,

Ramon

[peleliuexplorer]

Flew in the B-17 and B-24 when the Collings Foundation was here in California. The rumble of the B-24's engines will send chills up your spine. Big, open windows to stick your head out of. Awesome.

-Eric

[PEVO]

Flew in the B-17 and B-24 when the Collings Foundation was here in California. The rumble of the B-24's engines will send chills up your spine. Big, open windows to stick your head out of. Awesome.

-Eric

ANY chance to ride in a WW2 aircraft is a honor. I myself have taken a ride in the CAF B-17 "Texas raiders" AWESOME EXPERIENCE. After take off, you had the freedom to wonder about the various positions from the nose to the waist guns (with open windows on either side) You couldn't however get to the tail gunners position or get in in the lower ball turret (i couldn't squeeze in anyway) And to those who never experienced the ear splitting roar of the engines & the sound of the wind rushing past you...you will know you can't communicate without a headset intercom system or you have to outright scream into the ear of whoever your taking to. Not like in the movies when you can hardly hear the engines & crew members take back & forth without even raising their voices. What was really cool was that we were able to fly over my house. During our preflight breifing...they asked us if we had places we wanted to fly over...hence since i lived about 25 min from the airport in the country, my house was part of the flight plan. Right after we took off i clambered into the cockpit & showed the way(by hand signals) So i was actually standing in the cockpit while we made a big lazy banking turn over my house with my family standing outside watching us fly over. Would i do it again....HELL YA. It's too bad thou that a few months after my flight, the Texas Raiders B-17 was grounded for a FAA airworthyness inspection/Main wingspar repair. That was 7 years ago & i think they are just now doing flight trails after MAJOR overhaul & refits lasting this whole time.

[Chet Sowersby]

I have flown in The Collings Foundation aircraft also. I and my son have done all three of the bombers (B17,24,&25). Each one is a different experience and well worth the price of admission. All of their aircraft are to war time configuration. Yes indeed, when they wind up the enignes on the B24 it will send a chill up your spine.

So my advise is to log on to their website and see if next years tour will pass through your state. If so, it will be sometime in the early spring I imagine.

Chet