Old Planes on Mission for Funds : Camarillo: Two vintage World War II bombers arrive at airport for possibly their last goodwill tour.

Two vintage World War II-era bombers, a B-17 Flying Fortress and a rare B-24 Liberator, arrived at Camarillo Airport on Tuesday for what may be their last appearance in Southern California.

The nonprofit Massachusetts-based Collings Foundation has painstakingly restored both of the old war birds--including the only known B-24 Liberator still in flying condition--and is taking the planes on a nationwide goodwill tour to raise funds to keep them operating and, ultimately, to preserve them.

The foundation has found Ventura County fertile fund-raising territory because of the thousands of veterans who settled in the county and throughout Southern California at the end of the war.

But foundation officials say that while their mission has been to reunite the bombers with their old crews, the two large planes may soon be placed on semi-permanent display as soon as next year, partly because of their age and partly because of their $2,000-an-hour operating costs.

“Our plan is to basically stop touring on the scale we have been by the end of 1995,” foundation spokesman David Sheppard said. “We will keep them in flying shape and occasionally take them out for special events, but by the end of next year, our mission will be largely complete.”

Jonathan Rising, a 30-year-old Georgia-based pilot who flies the B-24 Liberator, said the foundation has concentrated on Southern California because of the large numbers of veterans living here. According to the 1990 U. S. Census, nearly 17,000 World War II veterans live in Ventura County alone.

“Our planes will visit 137 cities this year and a full third of those are in California,” Rising said. “We have found that California, especially Southern California, has just a huge number of veterans that want to see these aircraft. They treat them like long-lost old friends.”

In the six years that he has flown the aircraft, which is his elder by about 20 years, Rising said he has never tired of the veterans’ stories.

“It’s been my honor,” Rising said of his job. “I love talking to the veterans about their experiences in flying this airplane. Let me tell you, they took some chances I never would.”

During Tuesday’s arrival, about 100 veterans paid $7 each to line up near Camarillo Airport’s control tower and tour the aging aircraft, crawling around their bomb bays, cockpits and, just for a few moments, relive their wartime experiences.

“A lot of the guys will go from (age) 70 to 20 in about two seconds once they climb in,” Rising said. “These are aircraft that, in many cases, they haven’t seen for more than 50 years.”

For Donna Martin of Camarillo, seeing the shiny B-24 buzz the Camarillo control tower in a tight, left-banking turn, with the B-17 not far behind, brought back fond memories of her late father, Charles Kelly, who was a top-turret gunner on a Liberator during the war.

In 1992 and one time since then, Martin, 47, has stood in her dad’s old position in the foundation’s Liberator during flights as a tribute to him. A financial supporter and volunteer of the foundation, Martin saw to it that Kelly’s name was inscribed on the fuselage of the bomber, among hundreds of names of other pilots and crew members who once served in B-24 Liberators.

“When I took that first flight in 1992, I can’t tell you the emotions I was feeling,” she said. “I got a sense of all the joy and horrors that my dad must have experienced. Sitting in that top turret made me all the more proud of him.”

For George Goodwin, 72, who was a B-24 pilot and is now a Ventura-based organizer for the foundation, the arrival of the two bombers was like welcoming two old friends home. Goodwin said that if this year’s visit by the bombers is their last, he will be sad to see the old planes go.

“Yes, this is about reuniting the planes with our vets, but it’s also about preserving history,” he said. “When kids see these planes up close or even sit on the flight deck, it really brings the history of the war that they’ve read in books to life. That alone, to me, is worth all the effort.”

FYI

Two restored World War II-era bombers, a B-17 Flying Fortress and a B-24 Liberator, are available for public tours and flights through Thursday at Camarillo Airport. Tours are being offered from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. today and 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursday. For information or flight reservations, call 648-1258..