The “Aluminum Overcast,” a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber restored by the Experimental Aircraft Association, will be at Lee’s Summit (Mo.) Municipal Airport this weekend for tours and flights. The plane was to visit last year, but it was damaged in a hailstorm and had to be repaired.
Boeing built the Aluminum Overcast in 1945 but delivered it too late to the U.S. Army Air Corps to see active service in World War II. Aviation historians consider the B-17 to be one of the greatest military airplanes ever built. Nicknamed the Flying Fortress, Boeing produced 12,732 of the bombers in various models between 1935 and 1945. Today fewer than 15 are airworthy, with many scrapped after the war.
For the complete story by Russ Pulley of the Lee’s Summit Journal, click here.
