You may or may not have already heard about this, but the number of still flying B-17's was reduced by one Monday when the "Liberty Belle" a touring B-17G suffered an engine fire shortly after take off from the Aurora airport here in Illinois, and burned after safely making an emergency landing in a farm field and the crew and passengers getting out. You rememeber that Nova special about the guys who restored an icebound B-29 and were just about to fly it out when it too caught fire and was destroyed? It was that heartbreaking, by the time the fire department got there and doused the flames, the only things left of the belle were the wings, part of the nose, and a section of the tail. The strange thing was that the aircraft had been grounded all during the weekend because of the problem that lead to the fire. Now my question is: where was the onboard fire quenching equipment I recall from countless war movies and talks with actual B-17 veterans when I was a kid? The fire started in one engine and should have been dealt with by somebody hitting the CO2, the plane made a perfect landing in the field and there was even enough time for the crew to pile out with extinguishers and fight the blaze before it spread. In any case the FAA is investigating, and once I get more info, I'll post it.

CaptainCub wrote on Jun 16^th, 2011 at 2:13pm:


The photo's of the aircraft before it landed seem to show the fire a couple of feet in from the nacelle, so it may well have been something that was out of their hands.

Either way, I suspect the crew were experienced and competent enough to have completed the relevant immediate actions and drills to ensure a safe landing and escape. Sadly in this case the airframe wasn't so lucky.

DaveSims wrote on Jun 18^th, 2011 at 7:30am:


I suppose you're other consideration is how many large piston engined aircraft do you see nowadays? Over this side of the Atlantic it's a tiny bit above zero. Just about all piston aircraft are light singles or twins. Even medium sized pistons are exceptionally rare.