Liberty Belle

Liberty Belle was a popular name for United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft during World War II; over two dozen known individual Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators used the name. The combat Liberty Belles were commemorated by two B-17s which used the name, with one still remaining as a static display: Miss Liberty Belle (USAAF serial 44–83690) is displayed at the Grissom Air Museum. The Liberty Foundation flew a composite B-17 named Liberty Belle (constructed from two damaged aircraft (sn. 44-85734 and the rear part of sn. 44-85813)) as a warbird from 2004 until 2011, when it was destroyed in a fire after an emergency landing. It is currently under rebuild at the Brooks Aviation Center in Douglas, Georgia. Restored Liberty Belle B-17 Boeing B-17 (sn. 44–85734) did not see combat in World War II, and was originally sold on 25 June 1947, as scrap to Esperado Mining Co. of Altus, Oklahoma; it was then sold again later that year for $2,700 to Pratt & Whitney, which operated the B-17 as a heavily modified testbed aircraft (similar to B-17s sn. 44-85747 and sn. 44-85813). Following these flights, it was donated to the Connecticut Aeronautical Historic Association, where a tornado on 3 October 1979, blew another aircraft onto the B-17's midsection, breaking the fuselage. The B-17 was eventually purchased by aviation enthusiast Don Brooks, who formed the Liberty Foundation to exhibit it as the Liberty Belle. Restoration began in 1992 with parts from another damaged B-17 (sn. 44–85813), performed by Tom Reilly and company/Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum (aka "Bombertown USA"), located at that time at Kissimmee Gateway field, Kissimmee, Florida. She returned to the air on 8 December 2004 and had been touring the country offering the public rides on the bomber. The Liberty Foundation also took an historic overseas tour in July 2008 along the northern ferry route to England.