Winged Memories : World War II B-17 and B-24 on Display at John Wayne

For a brief moment Thursday, as the restored World War II bombers appeared on the horizon en route to John Wayne Airport, 78-year-old Al Olivari was 25 again.

At that age, he was a gunner assigned to shoot down enemy aircraft from behind a thin plexiglass shield in the nose of a B-17 Flying Fortress.

“It was noisy as hell, and ice cold in there,” he yelled as the vintage B-17 and B-24 Liberator circled in a thundering air display. “You couldn’t touch anything metal or you could kiss that piece of skin goodbye.”

Olivari, of Laguna Niguel, was one of about 40 fans of vintage aircraft and several septuagenarian veterans who gathered to greet the most famed bombers of World War II. The planes were joined by a restored British Tiger Moth biplane and the world’s oldest flying Bell helicopter.

The planes will be on display today and Saturday at Martin Aviation, which is dedicating a new, $4.2-million complex this weekend and celebrating the company’s 73rd anniversary. The airfield of the company founded by pioneer flier Eddie Martin later became John Wayne Airport.

Seeing the aircraft also stirred vivid memories for Roy Test, 74, a former B-17 co-pilot who wore his olive-drab uniform and cap for the event. Test said he flew in 32 bombing missions in 77 days up to and including D-day in 1944.

“It was scary, but fun in the sense that these were such nice planes to fly,” he said of the B-17. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s the greatest plane ever.”

Visitors on Thursday were allowed to climb through the cabins, bomb bays and turrets of the B-24 and B-17.

Susan Lytle of Anaheim said that her husband is a pilot, “so we get to see modern planes all the time. But I really wanted my children to see these, to imagine hundreds of them flying in the skies over England.”

The B-24, which underwent a $1.3-million restoration in 1989, is the only one of more than 18,000 B-24s constructed that is still able to fly, Martin Aviation officials said. The aircraft are owned by the nonprofit Collings Foundation, based in Massachusetts.

Test, the former co-pilot, said he was pleased that vintage planes are receiving such attention from young and old.

“I never would have thought that 50 years later there would be so much interest,” he said. “I thought they’d be long forgotten by now.”

Olivari said he feels a sense of personal responsibility to keep the memories of World War II alive.

“People ask me why I come to these things,” he said. “And I tell them it’s not just a matter of pride. We [veterans] want people to see these as a reminder of what happened in the past so it doesn’t happen again.”

The planes will be on display at the Martin Aviation terminal, 19301 Campus Drive, from 8:30 a.m. to dusk today and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Interior tours of the B-17 and B-24 cost $7 for adults, and $3 for children.