Re: Scratch another B17
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Emilio</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I live about 2 miles from Burbank airport and I am very lucky to see a B-17, B-24 and a P-51 fly over the house every once in a while. </div></div>
A friend of the family used to fly the "909" B-17 and the "Witchcraft" B-24 for the Collings Foundation. He just retired from flying with them after many years. This is the same group that flies around in the LA area on their show circuit. They also own the "Betty Jane" P-51C Mustang you've seen. Jay Leno did a show with all 3 of these planes a couple of years ago.
The Liberty Belle had recently (not sure how recently) had some of the fuel tanks replaced. Apparently, over the past weekend a fuel leak was found and the airplane was grounded for "maintenance". On the B-17, each engine has it's own fuel supply. The outboard engines have a single large tank and the inboards each have two smaller tanks plumbed together. There are also a number of fuel transfer lines and vent lines running through the wings (in hard to reach spaces), so lots of opportunity for fuel leaks.
The plane was supposed to make a press flight during the weekend but that didn't happen. On Monday morning the plane was being ferried to the next stop when it caught fire behind the #2 (left inboard) engine (the engine itself did not burn). Each engine nacelle has a large fire extinguisher installed that can be activated from the cockpit, but since the fire wasn't in the engine I'm not sure how effective it would have been in this case.
The pictures of it on fire show that the propeller on #2 engine is feathered indicating that the engine had been shut down in flight. From all of the pictures I've seen it's obvious that the pilot did an outstanding job of landing the plane under some pretty adverse conditions (one engine out, while on fire, on a plowed corn field, between some trees and power lines, etc.) allowing everyone on board to escape.
