Plane Show Sunday

Different weekend than Car Show Saturday.

B-24

'R' wandered out of his office with a question, "Are there any airports around here that would have some military planes?"

B-17

Probably not exactly what he said.....

So I told him about Beverly Airport and said that they have a website.  "Why?"  Seems he heard something military sounding overhead.  From a cellar office with the windows closed!  I think that I was running some machinery in the shop, too!

B-24

With a quick online check, he determined that there was a show at the Beverly Airport of some WWII planes.  The list included a B-17, the same type of plane that my Uncle Hughie was aboard when it crashed during a training flight.  My mom has wanted to see a B-17, a real one, not just a photo.  She was ten years old when her brother, Hughie, was killed in that crash.  He was the first serviceman from their city, New Bedford, MA, to die in WWII.  The Standard Times reporter that was sent to the house to tell my grandparents the terrible news found that my grandfather had just come home from the hospital after a heart attack.  The reporter then chose not to tell them that their son had been killed in a crash.  They heard the news later...on the radio.  You can read about the crash and the memorial that has been erected at the crash site here.

So, back to yesterday.  We decided to drive mom down to the airport.

Mom at one of the B-17 props

Truthfully, both 'R' and I wanted to go see the planes, too.  Along with the B-17, there was a B-24, a P-51, a T-6, a Corsair, and a Stearman biplane.

We spent a little more than an hour looking around and taking lots of photos.

Mom, me and R reflected at center

And......we got to go aboard the B-17.  Quite an experience for my mom to see what the plane was like and to imagine her brother aboard.

Mom at the starboard gun

So glad 'R' heard that plane overhead on Sunday morning.  So glad we went.