BURBANK : Historic Planes on Display in Visit to Airport

Fifty years after the end of World War II, Hal Thomas stood on the Tarmac at Burbank Airport and greeted an old friend--a B-17 Flying Fortress just like the one he flew on some 30 bombing missions over Germany and Italy in 1944 and ’45.

The 73-year-old La Canada resident fondly recalled his days as a lead pilot in the 95th Bomber Group of the 8th Air Force, taking flight in the pre-dawn hours from an air base in northern England, sailing at 26,000 feet over Europe, laying waste to enemy targets as part of a 36-plane bombing mission or dropping antitank guns to the Polish resistance.

“It was a great aircraft,” Thomas said. “It was just perfect for what we needed.”

The B-17, dubbed the “Nine-O-Nine,” and a 1944 B-24 Liberator known as the “All American” landed at the airport Wednesday for a three-day commemorative exhibit that ends today.

The event is being staged by Mercury Aviation, the B-17 Combat Crewmen and Wingmen’s Club, and the Massachusetts-based Collings Foundation, which owns the planes.

For $7, World War II buffs can tour the interior of both planes and get a close-up view of the bay from which 500-pound bombs were dropped, or the turrets and openings from where gunners shot at enemy fighters.

“Both these planes have undergone million-dollar restorations. They look like they just rolled out of the factory,” said Bob Stane, a member of the club. “Both these planes carry an incredible amount of history with them and it’s exciting to see them up close.”

The B-17 was built shortly after the end of the war in 1945, but was part of a fleet of military aircraft subjected to three H-bomb test explosions on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the early 1950s. The aircraft remained radioactive for nearly 15 years, but after “cooling down,” it was sold to a private aviation company.

Built in 1944, the B-24 was transferred from the U. S. Air Force to the Royal Air Force during the war, and was later sold to the government of India, which deployed it for 20 years before retiring the plane in 1968. It is now the only fully restored and flying B-24 Liberator in the country, Stane said.

About 100 people were on hand Wednesday to watch the planes land, and another crowd is expected to see them depart this afternoon. The planes are touring the country in honor of the 50th anniversary of V-E Day this month and V-J Day on Aug. 14.

“For their size and bulk, they are incredibly graceful. When those planes take off or land, it’s a sight to behold,” Stane said.