Vintage WWII Planes Give Visitors Trip Down Memory Lane : Camarillo: Hundreds of enthusiasts show up at the airport to view a B-24 and a B-17. Some pay $300 each for a one-hour flight.

Flying a few thousand feet above the Pacific Ocean, 68-year-old Roy Hon unleashed his safety belt, flashed a big smile and headed straight for the 50-caliber machine gun turret.

Grasping the black steel turret inside the belly of a vintage World War II B-24 bomber, Hon aimed the gun at an imaginative squadron of enemy fighter planes and feigned an attack. “Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!” he exclaimed.

While Hon was one of the lucky few to fly in the vintage aircraft, a couple hundred other enthusiasts showed up at Camarillo Airport on Saturday for the chance to view the inside of the last flying machine of its kind.

The B-24 Liberator “All American” is part of a nationwide touring exhibit that includes another vintage WWII craft, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Both planes will be on exhibit through Monday.

The two planes were the engineering pride and joy of America’s war machine during the WWII era, said co-organizer Ray Grooms, a Simi Valley resident and former WWII pilot. While the B-17 was revered for its ability to climb and deliver its bombs at great heights, the B-24 was the most produced American aircraft and dropped more bombs and flew more missions than any other.

For visitors, the planes’ arrival from Van Nuys Airport on Saturday afternoon rekindled vivid memories of a bygone era, and the veterans of WWII swapped some of their personal war stories.

“This is nostalgia beyond belief,” said 71-year-old George Goodwin, who volunteered to help organize the event. Goodwin, a Ventura resident, piloted B-24s in WWII, bombing enemy factories and oil fields and surviving a crash landing on a tiny island near Yugoslavia after being hit by enemy fire.

“These guys want to relive some of their memories,” said Donna Martin of Camarillo. “They want to get back a part of their lives.”

Martin and her husband, Art, were among the handful of passengers who spent hundreds of dollars to fly in one of the two planes Saturday.

“My father was a top turret gunner in World War II on a B-24,” Martin said. “To be where my dad saw all the action was a thrill of a lifetime.”

Visitors of all ages were in Camarillo awaiting the arrival of the two planes, which were about 30 minutes late because of thunder and lightning in Van Nuys.

Soon after landing, eager visitors knelt to enter the planes through bomb hatch doors.

Once inside, they found the planes restored to their exact specifications--complete with disabled bombs and turret ammunition supplies.

Bob Bronson of Chatsworth decided his 12-year-old son, Eric, would enjoy seeing a restored version of the B-17 Bob’s father flew in bombing runs in Europe. “I can tell him all the stories in the world, but this gives him a concrete idea of what his grandfather flew.”

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator on exhibit this week was first rescued from a rusty death at a bomber graveyard in Khanpur, India.

“There were so many made, but now they’re just about extinct,” said Grooms, a former B-24 pilot and member of the nonprofit Collings Foundation, which restored both planes.

The Collings Foundation, based in Massachusetts, eventually plans to place both airplanes in museums. “Events like this help keep these things flying and help pay off the indebtedness for building them,” Goodwin said.

To recover some of the tour and restoration costs, organizers offer fund-raising “Dawn Patrols.” For $300, would-be Top Gunners get an hourlong flight in the early morning sunlight. There are six seats in each plane.

The flight Saturday was the first time Hon, a veteran tail gunner during World War II, had been in a B-24 since he flew bombing missions over Europe in the mid-1940s. The flight was a surprise from his wife, Jeanne, who spent $1,000 for their rides and for the addition of her husband’s name on the body of the B-24.

“I told him Wednesday and thank God I didn’t to it sooner,” she said. “He was so excited he hasn’t slept.”

Admission to the display is $7 for adults and $3 for children. The exhibit will continue today from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information or to sign up for a “Dawn Patrol” flight, call 388-4202 or visit the information booth.