😲😲 B-17 Bomber "Texas Raiders" Flies Over My House!

Quite the surprise treat when I heard the approaching rumblings of a multi-radial engine plane, and rushed outside just in time to see that it was a B-17 flying right overhead! It was about 1500ft or so, and you could really feel the vibrations of those 4 9-cylinder engines. 😲 ❤ This isn't something most people would get to see first hand in their lifetimes unless you were at an airshow. There are only a handful of these things still flying in the entire world.

UPDATE 11/12/22 - Texas Raiders destroyed in midair collision at Dallas airshow yesterday. 😢 I almost went to this show yesterday, because Dallas isn't that far away. I have touched this plane many times when I was a kid and looked over every inch of it when they left it open to public display. I've seen it flying at airshows across Texas, from Houston to Abilene to Wichita Falls for about 40 years. Starting in 1984, my grandfather took us in the RV to the Wings Over Houston airshow nearly every year for the next decade. She was the B-17 that always re-enacted the bomber trying to land on only one gear extended during the Pearl Harbor battle re-enactment. Nearly 20 years ago, I started seeing her again regularly at the airshows at Sheppard AFB held every couple of years. It became so commonplace and expected to see her at the airshows, that I stopped taking photos and video, but I always took the time to look, touch, imagine, and marvel at how she survived this long and was still flying and sounded so wonderful with those rumbling engines. She came on tour for rides here a year ago, and she flew right over my house in several low passes over the city, which I recorded on one pass, after being caught off guard the first time. That video link in comments. After watching that video again, I cried, as if she were a living, breathing creature. Because to those of us who love airplanes and have spent our lives around them...she was.

It seems strangely prophetic now...that she gave me the chance to go get my camera again for another pass. After being a fixture since my childhood, and some of the fondest memories of shared experiences with my late grandfather, also a WWII veteran, because it would be the last time I ever saw her. 💔

6 killed, 2 irreplaceable birds destroyed.
Rest In Peace
"Texas Raiders"
1944 ~ 11.12.22

#B-17 #FlyingFortress #TexasRaiders #WingsOverDallas #airshow #CommemorativeAirForce #CAF