A piece of living history will land in Albert Lea this week – a relic from U.

Monday, September 10, 2001

A piece of living history will land in Albert Lea this week – a relic from U.S bombing missions over Germany during the last months of World War II.

The Yankee Lady, one of 12 remaining B-17 Flying Fortresses still operational, is scheduled to land at the Albert Lea Airport Thursday for a brief visit.

Tours of the 74-foot aircraft will be offered Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Thirty-minute guest flights are also available for $400.

&uot;We had a visit from a B-17 bomber a few years ago, and the interest was great,&uot; said airport manager Jim Hanson. &uot;I didn’t hesitate when they asked if they could stop in Albert Lea for refueling.&uot;

The Yankee Lady is owned by the Yankee Air Museum in Belleville, Mich., which acquires and restores vintage aircraft, particularly of the WWII era, said tour organizer Roger Gomoll. The bomber was exhaustively restored over a nine-year period after the museum purchased it for $250,000. It’s now one of the museum’s crown jewels, along with a C-47 transport plane and a B-25D medium-range bomber. All three WWII aircraft are flown around the country in the summer for air shows and other events.

B-17s are best remembered for the dangerous daylight-bombing missions over Germany during WWII while serving with the U.S. Army’s Air Force based in England. The most famous example of the bomber is the Memphis Belle, which was featured in the film of the same name.

Gomoll said The Yankee Lady is a later model of the B-17, and never saw combat. It has a natural metal finish, a wingspan of more than 100 feet, a dozen .50-caliber machine guns and a bomb load of 5,000 pounds. A crew of 10 manned the bomber during combat missions, some ranging 2,000 miles or more.

The aircraft has been painted with the markings of a typical B-17G assigned to the 8th Airforce, 381st Bomb Squadron flying out of Ridgewell, England. The color scheme is a memorial to the late Joseph Slavik who flew 35 missions as a pilot with the 381st. Slavik and his brother, Stephen, helped the museum purchase the plane.

For information about tours and flights of The Yankee Lady, call Albert Lea Aviation at 373-0608.