{"id":3996,"date":"2013-03-27T20:19:25","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T20:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/in-pictures-b-17-2\/"},"modified":"2013-03-27T20:19:25","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T20:19:25","slug":"in-pictures-b-17-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/in-pictures-b-17-2","title":{"rendered":"IN PICTURES: B-17 Memphis Belle Visits Long Beach; Offers Chance For Public to Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-23356\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/DSC_3544.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3544\" width=\"620\" height=\"415\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s called the Flying Fortress and soon after her first flight on July 28 of 1935, the B-17 bomber became a symbol of the U.S.&#8217; fighting power in WWII.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the restored Memphis Belle&#8211;the first B-17 to complete her tour of duty during WWII&#8211;will be visiting Long Beach in order for the public to have an up-and-close and personal visit with the plane both on the ground and in the sky.<\/p>\n<p>Out of a staggering 12,732 B-17s produced between 1935 and 1945, the Belle B-17G is one of only 14 other B-17s that still fly to this day. Initially sold as scrap in 1947 to a mining company postwar, it was then sold to Pratt &amp; Whitney for some $2,700 to use as a test bed for their prop engines. Following damage in a tornado, the wrecked aircraft was restored over the course of five years, from 1987 to 1992. After being discovered by the Liberty Foundation, a nonprofit museum, the aircraft then underwent a full, fourteen-year restoration and took flight once again 2004.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the Liberty Foundation&#8217;s Salute to Veterans tour, the hopes are to connect visitors with the plane that helped the 390th bomb group of the 8th Airforce in Europe achieve notoriety.<\/p>\n<p><em>The B-17 flight experience takes place this Saturday, March 30, at Long Beach Airport. The experience is 45 minutes with approximately a half-hour in flight time and a 15 minute history briefing. B-17 Flights are $410 for Liberty Foundation members and $450 for non-members. Passengers can become a Liberty Foundation Member for $40 and receive the member discount for family and friends. For more information and tickets, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.libertyfoundation.org\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>{gallery}addison\/b17{\/gallery}<\/p>\n<p>{FG_GEOMAP [33.8107394,-118.1531306] FG_GEOMAP}<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-23356\" src=\"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/DSC_3544.jpg\" alt=\"DSC 3544\" width=\"620\" height=\"415\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The restored Memphis Belle&#8211;the first B-17 to complete her tour of duty during WWII&#8211;will be visiting Long Beach in order for the public to have an up-and-close and personal visit with the plane both on the ground and in the sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":69205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3996"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3996"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}