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Big airplane - can anyone ID it?


Warden Callaway

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Just stepped out of the house and this noisy big bird came over.  I couldn't track it well with smart phone because I couldn't see it on the screen.  Big.  4 engine prop.  Went over mid-Missouri at 2:00pm today. 

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Believe you saw a B-17.  More of those around still flying than most other US WW II bombers.

A B-24 has a squared horizontal stabilizer on tail.  A -17 has a tapered one.  When viewed from underneath.  Yours - tapered.

A B-24 tail is as wide as only the inner engine housings.   A -17's tail is as wide as the OUTER engine housings.   Yours - wide

 

-17 has a full plexiglass nose, as well as the B-24.  So a sun flare is quite possible on a -17.

 

So, don't think you were Liberated, you were just Fortressed.

 

Good luck, GJ

 

 

B-24 id card:

 

WW2  - aircraft id card, B-24

 

 

 

 

 

B-17 card:

WW2  - aircraft id card, B-17

 

 

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2 hours ago, Warden Callaway said:

It came from the west.  Whiteman Airforce base is that direction.

 

We're on the flight path from anywhere to everywhere. :wacko: 

Definitely a B-17!  As to whether it came from Whiteman, unless they were having a special day with that bird, mostly what would be flying out of Whiteman would be one of the 509th's B-2's!  And the 509th is (still) winning the war!

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Warden, next time you see something overhead you wish to identify go to this site real quick ~ real-time radar tracking.  Fine-tune it to your location and close... it'll remember where you are next time you open it.  :)

 

https://www.flightradar24.com/37.91,-93.01/8

 

It'll give you all sorts of information - point of origin, destination, altitude, speed... and aircraft ID.

 

THEN, if you're really curious, you can enter the ID on the FAA's page and get aircraft specific data including basic history and ownership.  

 

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Inquiry.aspx

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COOL!  SWA138 from Auston to Chicago just flew over us. DAL1926 just flew south of us  going from Kansas City to Atlanta. LOF4600 is over us now flying from Denver to Louisville.

 

 

I should charge them for using my airspace!

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A lot of years ago I had the opportunity to bowhunt in North Missouri.  After supper we laid in our sleeping bags and watched the air traffic between St. Louis and Kansas City and other points of the compass.  The sky was crystal clear, dark with the planes still reflecting sunlight.  The volume was unbelievable.

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I would call a B-17 Flying fortress. Stabalizers aft are rounded. The "Lib" has two rudders, this one had one.

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Before so many commercial airliners were jet propelled and able to fly above about 30,000 feet (depending on the temperature), we used to call the contrails, "SACtracks"!  Of course even B-17's could fly high enough to generate contrails.

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19 hours ago, Warden Callaway said:

1841167354_BigBird2July2018.jpg.9d91d7e5666f462704f0613d7f78dda9.jpg

 

I saved off a couple more but this one is probably the best profile.  The glints are off the propeller blades. 

Rounded stabilizers and single rudder. 4 engines, plexiglass nose B-17

Had it had double rudders, on each end of stabilizers,  you'd be looking at a "Lib".

Interesting note, The B-24, which could take vast amounts damage, on "paper", wasn't even supposed to be able to fly. Go figure.

 

Knarley

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My father-in-law was  navigator on a B-17.  He gave us a globe marked with all the places he flew to; not combat or bombing missions, but ferrying people and materials.  The traces on the globe go around the earth several times.  His short snorter was always the longest one in the bar... I don’t think he paid for any drinks the whole time he was in the Army Air Corps,  Bless him and his crew.  I wish he was still with us so I could hear his stories again,  :D

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B-17  for sure. I have seen six of them fly over my home on the central Atlantic coast of FL in the last three years. 

Cheers, Hoss C,

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