B-17 Flying Legend

B-17 Flying Legend Janson Media DVD; 52 minutes; www.janson.com; $24,95.

"B-17 Flying Legend" gets off to a promising start with a wonderful computer collage of wartime snapshots of Boeing's Flying Fortresses and their crews. The documentary touches all the bases. It covers the development of the B-17 as the Boeing Model 299 (later-model B-17 footage is used to illustrate the narrative) and gives us a nice mix of rare, color wartime footage and contemporary interviews with veterans and shots of the surviving B-17s. Much screen time is given to Miss Angela (Bob Pond's and the Palm Springs Air Museum's B-17G in California), The Collings Foundation's Nine-O-Nine, the National Warplane Museum's Fuddy Duddy and David Tallichet's 1990 movie star, Memphis Belle.

I encountered my only major disappointment among the "Bonus Features"-principally the chapter called "B-17 Flying Legend." While the menu promisingly offers a heading for each of today's 13 flying B-17s, we're given only the aircraft's nose-art name, military serial number, current owner and the location of its home field accompanied by film or photographs of the subject aircraft. Nowhere do we find even a modest military or civilian history of these survivors!

Such material has long been in the public realm-most notably, in Scott Thompson's classic volume, "Final Cut" and even in my own decades-old series of articles on civilian-owned B-17s for the American Aviation Historical Society Journal!

Fortunately, the other "Bonus Features," which include a "Photo Gallery" of some 200 stills, "Additional Interviews," "B-17: Virtual Tour" and the "Memphis Belle" documentary, are certainly more than worth a click of the remote. And while the inclusion of the latter USAAF full-color documentary adds immeasurably to the value of this DVD, it saddens me to see the continued deterioration of these irreplaceable historic artifacts.

Regardless of its shortcomings, "B-17 Flying Legend" is an excellent resource for those who are new to this remarkable aircraft and its era.

"...WHILE the inclusion of THE LATTER USAAF full-color DOCUMENTARY adds immeasurably TO THE VALUE OF THIS DVD, it saddens me TO SEE THE continued deterioration OF THESE irreplaceable HISTORIC ARTIFACTS."

Copyright Air Age Publishing Oct 2004
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