#fly high flyboys 🩵

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There are only six airworthy B-17 Flying Fortress left in the world out of the 12,731 produced, but not too long ago there were seven.

With Masters of the Air recently coming out, I’ve been thinking about the B-17 a lot lately.

Especially her.

Produced on July 12, 1945, Texas Raiders was one of the last 20 B-17s ever built yet she racked up 3,257 flight hours flying for the US Navy, the fifth most out of all B-17s. In 1967, she was bought and restored to wartime configuration, going on to fly airshows all over North America with the Commemorative Air Force.

On November 22, 2022, she was involved in a midair collision with a P-63 Kingcobra during the Wings Over Dallas airshow.

All five crew aboard the B-17 and the solo pilot of the P-63 were tragically lost.

We could sit and go over the details again and again, figure out why and how it happened, who was at fault, but that’s not our job. Leave that to the FAA. Flying in airshows, especially older warbirds, has never been without risk. They loved to fly, continuing the legacy of the B-17 Flying Fortress and those who served with her through living history. We can’t let ourselves be brought to the ground by the weight of their loss when they wanted nothing more than to keep ‘em flying.

All we can do is remember them.

Terry Barker of Keller, TX

Craig Hutain of Montgomery, TX

Kevin “K5” Michels of Austin, TX

Dan Ragan of Dallas, TX

Leonard Root of Fort Worth, TX

Curt Rowe of Hillard, OH

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If you’d like to hear more about David Wolman and his time at Thorpe Abbotts as well as his role in D-Day, I highly recommend checking out this incredible article (LINK).

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