Remarks: "Nine-O-Nine" of the Collings Foundation is on short final for 21. The McDowell Mountains provide a terrific background for photos of aircraft arriving at Scottsdale.
Remarks: Wings of Freedom Tour 2011. The Sperry Ball Turret of "Nine-O-Nine", the Collings Foundation's B-17G. Seeing it in real life really puts into perspective the cramped conditions the Ball Turret gunners had to endure during 10-12 hour missions. Still, post-war analysis on B-17 fatality records showed that the Ball Turret gunners actually had the "safest" job on a B-17 (with the pilots having the most dangerous).
Remarks: Wings of Freedom Tour 2011. The Collings Foundation's B-17G is taking off in the early evening. She has been named and painted as the historic "Nine-O-Nine" which completed 140 missions during WWII, believed the be a record for the Eighth Air Force, without losing a crewman.
Remarks: Rivets, rivets and rivets. This magnificent aircraft looks like it is stapled together. How different she is from her shiny composite sister from just next door, the 787.
