B-17 Bomber Gas Station

I do not know if this is the truth, but I hope that it is. Braden

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Shortly after WWII a guy named Art Lacey went to Kansas to buy a surplus B-17. His idea was to fly it back to Oregon , jack it up in the air and make a gas station out of it. He paid $15,000 for it. He asked which one was his and they said take whichever you want because there were miles of them. He didn't know how to fly a 4-engine airplane so he read the manual while he taxied around by himself. They said he couldn't take off alone so he put a mannequin in the co-pilot's seat and off he went.

He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he went to land he realized he needed a co-pilot to lower the landing gear. He crashed and totaled his plane and another on the ground. They wrote them both off as "wind damaged" and told him to pick out another. He talked a friend into being his co-pilot and off they went.

They flew to Palm Springs where Lacey wrote a hot check for gas. Then they headed for Oregon . They hit a snow storm and couldn't find their way, so they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. His partner sat in the nose section and would yell, "TUNNEL" when he saw one and Lacey would climb over the mountain.

They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and they started getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail for a long time, so late one Saturday night, he just moved it himself. He got a $10 ticket from the police for having too wide a load.

From what I've read that story is at least mostly true, although there may be some embellishments. Their own web page is not very descriptive. http://www.thebomber.com/

I saw a magazine once..a model builder made a diorama of The Bomber using Monogram's 1/48th scale B-17 kit. Impressive stuff.

Wow. That'd be a story to tell the grandkids.

I have actually been there.

In reply to rebelgtp:

Please tell me the food's good, even if it isn't. I love cool old places like that.

I've seen it, it looks a bit worse for wear today.

Edit: looks like its being restored. That explains why it was missing a few major parts when I saw it recently.

Hey, if you go to the history on their site: http://www.thebomber.com/ (as Stuart linked), under the history tab, there's a "e-booklet" that describes the journey, and has some other facts about the plane. Just click the upper right corner of the "brown page"

I wonder if I can buy a surplus B2 and do this...

Curmudgeon wrote: I wonder if I can buy a surplus B2 and do this...

No, but you could probably do a 747...

http://www.airplanehome.com/

I've been there, it's the start of dealership row. It looks totally trashed today and there's a coffee shop under it that just got shut down for a stupid County worker. Sad.

ScottRA21 wrote: Hey, if you go to the history on their site: http://www.thebomber.com/ (as Stuart linked), under the history tab, there's a "e-booklet" that describes the journey, and has some other facts about the plane. Just click the upper right corner of the "brown page"

So that's how it works...I couldn't figure it out earlier. They could use a new website developer.

I drive by there at least once a week.

Just did today to hit harbor freight.

Sounds like a post-war Oregonian story though ;)

I would have thought a surplus B-17 would have been cheaper than $15k. You could get a Stearman for $500. Mustangs weren't whole lot more.

I hope the old girl doesn't get scrapped.

Curmudgeon wrote: http://www.airplanehome.com/

Right now its probably pretty hard to give away a 727 for anything above scrap value. You never see them flying any more.