By Bill Vidonic
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
It was a history lesson that David Rakestraw couldn't get from a DVD or video game.
During an hour-long flight Monday inside the B-17 bomber Liberty Belle, the 10-year-old boy from Columbus, Ohio, grasped the cold steel of a machine gun, smelled the scorched rubber as the tires squealed on the runway, and felt the wind rush past through an opening in the plane's roof.
"This is hands-on history," said Vince Rakestraw, David's father. "You really get the feel of what it must have been like to bomb Germany. It's certainly a nostalgic look back."
But it's a history lesson that comes at a steep price.
The Liberty Foundation, owner of the restored Flying Fortress, spends about $1 million a year flying the plane to nearly three dozen cities across the United States.
This weekend, the B-17 bomber will be available for flights and public ground tours at the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin. Flights cost $430 for non-members of the nonprofit Liberty Foundation.
"We fly a lot of veterans who want to touch the past one more time, and family that want to get a better understanding about what Dad and Grandpa did during the war," said foundation spokesman Scott Maher. "The airplane is hands-on history, not in the pages of a dusty book."
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