http://amp.timeinc.net/thedrive/the-war-zone/21310/theres-a-magical-place-called-bomber-camp-where-b-17s-and-b-25s-still-drop-bombs?source=dam

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The afternoon includes mission flights and various ground activities. You will train and fly as a member of a 6-person bomber crew assigned during induction. A mission consists of flights of both the B17, B24 and other planes flying over the target area, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains as backdrop. As a crew you will take up positions in the bomber and rotate through them during flight. Before and after your mission you will participate in ground training activities, including firefighting, radio operation, first aid, and ball turret training.

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$5K to drop dummy bombs....how bogus is that??

It ain't about the bombs.

If that is near Barksdale AFB than that must be Caddo Lake but I don't think so.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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getting to do that without having flak shells exploding near you, or Messerschmitts/****e Wulfs strafing your butt in a thin aluminum tube is worth every penny

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IIRC, back when the B-17 was on the drawing board (early to mid 1930s) the expectation was that it would fly higher and faster than the (existing) pursuit planes and could fend them off with its complement of 50 caliber machine guns; and would fly beyond the range of anti-aircraft guns ...

That looks awesome

BrazosBendHorn said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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getting to do that without having flak shells exploding near you, or Messerschmitts/****e Wulfs strafing your butt in a thin aluminum tube is worth every penny

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IIRC, back when the B-17 was on the drawing board (early to mid 1930s) the expectation was that it would fly higher and faster than the (existing) pursuit planes and could fend them off with its complement of 50 caliber machine guns; and would fly beyond the range of anti-aircraft guns ...

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I am currently reading a book called Masters of the Air (purportedly the source material for an HBO miniseries like Band of Brothers). There is a lot of discussion about this very topic. It certainly seems delusional in retrospect to think that any bomber wa ever going to outrun the fighters or fly higher from ground-based flak emplacements, but it really was new territory for the Army Air Corps planners at the time. US fighters in the early to mid 30s were unremarkable P-26 Peashooters or biplanes such as what shot down a giant ape on some building, but even in our country you had the earliest fighters coming off the drawing board that could keep up with the bomber they were designing.