Fighter planes and bombers from the World War II era are scarce. There are less than a dozen B-17s still flying and only two B-24s. However, two of those iconic machines can be seen at The Frontiers of Flight Museum across from Love Field as part of The National Wings of Freedom Tour.
The B-24 Liberator on display happened to have been built in Fort Worth.
"Just amazing, the history of the planes and the people giving their lives to fight for our country and our freedom it's just a great thing to come and see it,” said Julie Flandorfer. “It's amazing they're still flying."
The Flandorfer family, from Dallas, joined others who got a kick out of climbing up, in and around the majestic World War II bombers.
"It's just cool to see the history,” said Eric Flandorfer, spending part of his 50th birthday checking out the planes with his wife and two kids.
“These guys do a lot of work maintaining the planes keeping them flying so who knows how much longer they're going to be around flying so you got to come see them" Flandorfer said.
We didn't see any members of the Greatest Generation on this cloudy and somewhat blustery Sunday. But the president of the Frontiers of Flight Museum said there have been some out here during the four-day exhibit that ended Sunday.
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"I heard a veteran yesterday as the planes were cranking up, he said, 'Listen, listen, that's exactly what it sounded like.' That took him back decades,” said Cheryl Sutterfield-Jones. “That's a piece of history that won't be here very long and that we need to capture and carry on."
Members of a much younger generation weren't hard to impress. Friends Jackson and Roman, 7 and 8-years-old, had plenty to say about their tour of the B-24 Liberator.
"They plane is awesome. You get to go in the bomb bay. And it's fun. And you get to see the bombs in the back. Yeah," the boys shouted simultaneously.
A fighter plane, the P-51 Mustang, was the fastest fighter plane before the jet era. A non-profit out of Massachusetts called the Collings Foundation restores, maintains and keeps these planes in the air going city-to-city 11 months out of the year.
This was the 10th time in 25 years the Wings of Freedom exhibit came to the Frontiers of Flight Museum.
