A FLIGHT BACK IN TIME--022713 ATLANTA: It's a flight back in time for WWII veteran Rudolph Phillips, 91, Woodstock, who gathers his thoughts on board the movie "Memphis Belle", a restored WWII B-17 "flying fortress" bomber celebrating the 70th anniversary of it's historic last mission over Peachtree DeKalb Airport on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, in Atlanta. Phillips was a gunnery instructor during the war and said "when they dropped the bomb I was in California crewing up to go over to the Pacific. I haven't been on a B-17 since." Phillips said every time he sees a plane he thinks about the men who didn't come back and that he wished he was still in as good a shape as he was back then. The aircraft will be open to the public and available for ground tours and paid flights that help keep the plane operating on Saturday and Sunday, March 2-3. CURTIS COMPTON / CCOMPTON@AJC.COM
Fly through time this weekend at Dekalb-Peachtree Airport. The Memphis Belle B-17 is in Atlanta for short flights and ground tours Saturday and Sunday.
"Mostly likely we'll just be cruising around Atlanta and Stone Mountain so a lot of people will look up and see a B-17," chief pilot Ray Fowler tells WSB. "You can't miss it. You'll certainly hear it coming."
Passengers are taken up nine at a time and can tour the various combat crew positions.
"Everybody wants to get into that nose," Fowler says. "It's like a magic carpet ride and nobody wants to come out."
Flights cost $450 per person. The money raised offsets the operating costs of the plane. There are only twelve B-17s still flying around the world today.
Daily flights usually run between 10am and 3pm. After that, the B-17 will be open for ground tours.
While this B-17 is called the Memphis Belle, the original Memphis Belle is on display at the museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. This plane was featured in the 1990 movie, "Memphis Belle."
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