Camden: Rethink rides on WWII bombers

Those veterans’ children, who grew up on a diet of “12 O’Clock High” and other war movies showing on their family television sets.

The children’s children, who may be the first ones World War II veterans opened up to about their experiences, explaining what they did in the war for class oral history projects.

Spokane is home to all three groups, and the vintage bombers usually make yearly stops at either Felts Field or the Geiger side of Spokane International Airport.

It can be thrilling to ride in the kind of plane that carried grandpa over Europe or the Pacific and more instructive than a textbook to understand it wasn’t like a trip on a 757 with a padded seat and built-in video screen. It’s hard to convey in the abstract the near-deafening roar of piston-driven engines, the smell of the fuel, the jolts of the takeoffs and landings.

But it’s time to face facts. A B-17 is, at its youngest, 74 years old. While most of the parts on such a plane haven’t been on it for three-quarters of a century, you can’t go to O’Reilly Bomber Parts and pick up a spare. They’re either salvaged from other bombers equally as old or re-created from old plans.

It may be considered inappropriate for me to call for these rides to end. Over some three decades, I have hitched rides for stories on just about every kind of World War II bomber that has come through Spokane. Most years, at least one makes a summer stop.

I rode on a B-17, although not the Nine-Oh-Nine. Before we took off, I remember the crew chief pointing out a window and telling us not to worry if we see oil dripping from the engines. It’s the way they lubricated in those days, he said.

All airplanes have mechanical problems. When you’re waiting in an airport and the gate agent says your flight’s delayed because of a problem with your jetliner, you might be unhappy about the wait but relieved that they found it before you took off.

World War II bombers were famous for surviving all manner of damage and getting their crews home. But they were kept ready to fly by scores of specially trained mechanics who, over time, saw every problem and knew how to fix it.

They also were built to carry people who had specific wartime jobs on them, not passengers.

The Collings Foundation and other historic aviation organizations should keep the venerable bombers and fighters in flying condition as long as possible, and take them from city to city for as long as people will come out to gaze lovingly or longingly at their propellers, their gun turrets or their nose art.

The current pilots and mechanics should continue to give ground tours, and old crew members should continue to relive their stories with children, grandchildren and maybe even great-grandchildren for as long as they are able.

But even though it means the organizations will lose a source of funding from the contributions they get for short flights over the host cities, the public rides should stop. The takeoffs and landings have become too risky to use them as passenger planes.