The Aluminum Overcast rumbled off the runway Monday at Buchanan Field and climbed into the blue sky on a mission to show how the venerable B-17G Flying Fortress handled World War ll. 

The Overcast is one of the American bombers that helped turn the tide of World War II. The plane is cramped in some places such as the ball turrets, but it got the job done.

Hosting the workhorse was the Experimental Airplane Association, Chapter 393, of Concord. The plane didn’t see service in WW II— it was built too late.

On hand to get a ride were a smattering of media types, interested people and a few aging veterans who were hoping to fly one more flight to remember events of 60-plus years ago. After a 20-minute flight, we were back on the ground wanting more.

It takes a small army to maintain the Overcast. The plane is equipped with state-of-the-art navigation equipment, two Garmin GPS units. The four engines produce 1,200 horsepower.

“We travel with two trailers. One trailer is the maintenance trailer. It has all the equipment to maintain the airplane. Short of changing out an engine, everything is in that trailer," said Michael Digangi, the B17 tour coordinator who has been with the Overcast for 10 years. 

"We have cylinders, we have tires, any kind of part you can think of. The other trailer is my office and the gift shop. Those two vehicles follow the airplane wherever it goes. Of course we have the airplane, the six people who crew with the plane, the two pilots, two mechanics, myself and my assistant,” he said.

“It’s in outstanding condition. The two mechanics, whenever the plane isn’t flying, they are all over the plane making sure everything is exactly right. When it's home in the wintertime, they do all kinds of upgrades to the airplane. Every year they do something to bring the airplane up to make it up to be more authentic. Last year they made the ball turrets fully functional,” Digangi said.

Jackson Wells, a B17 pilot who turns 90 on Oct. 9, reminisced:“I enlisted the week after Pearl Harbor began. We knew we all had to go. But they had no training planes, they were short on instructors. I had never been on a plane. It took a lot of time to get things together.” 

"They had to manufacture 100,000 pilots if they could during the war," he said. "The tough year was 1943; 1942 was even tougher because we never had a plane across the German-occupied French coast. So the losses were huge in 1942. They told the guys on those cruises that they should consider themselves dead, it was that harsh.  I had an easier time because we were fighting back.” 

Wells continued: "The German fighters could knock a lot of these planes down as soon as they saw them take off from England. German fighter planes were all along the French coast. I had 28 missions; we went out and sometimes our biggest mission was 1,000 airplanes." 

The Aluminum Overcast is one of only 14 Fortress's still flying and will be on display until Thursday when it takes off for its next destination. The plane will be open to the public through today and the plane will leave tomorrow for its next destination.

For more information, visit the EAA website.