I got a chance to climb on board one of those at an air show. We're talking "Flying Fortress" right? The thing that REALLY struck me is how small they are. They look so much bigger in pictures. Met a navigator once. He said he didn't like it because he had to sit there and could not shoot back. Survival was the luck of the draw.
I will have to put up somewhere the pictures from the Nine-O-Nine. In flight.
Go to the Collings Foundation and look up the show schedule. You can get a flight for a tax-deductible $450 donation, and it is VERY worth it. All the equipment is installed, nothing is "safety-ized", you can crawl all around in flight. I found the nose compartment very comfortable, and you can even sight buildings going by through the Norden, which is intact.
I got to be right behind the copilot for engine start, because instead of moving up from the tail hatch, I went to the nose and did a proper no-ladder grab-swing-and-tuck-in boarding at the hatch there, so I got there first.
Absolutely nothing in the world sounds like those big radial engines whining, coughing, and roaring into glorious life at dawn. That plane was alive, I swear. As soon as she cleared the runway, the engines were like a joyous song. Like she was supposed to be in the air, and knew it.
Stole the show in general, too, elegant grand old lady.
