[wheatdog]

When the flying circus showed up in New Orleans about 18 mos ago, I threw down my $400 bucks for one of the coolest rides I've ever been on. Loaded up on the B-17 for about a 30 min jaunt around Lake Ponchartrain. They put about 10 of us in and once we leveled out, let us wander around the plane. No access to the ball turret or the tail gun area though. Sat up front spread eagled around the Norden bombsight and imagined how exposed I would feel with a FW-190 coming head on with the nose cannon lit up. They even let us hang out of the Navigator's hatch behind the upper gun turret. Pulled out what little hair I have left on my head after hanging out in the 200mph breeze. Before starting up the 4 Wright Cyclone 9 cyl radials, each engine had to be hand propped 9 times to clear any possible oil from the cylinders. I even had fun helping push that huge prop. You should have seen the beautiful blonde girl who was the co-pilot on the B-24. My buddy went for a ride there and didn't have much to say about the scenery, just how gorgeous the co pilot was.

Mike