World War II bomber, a living history exhibit, soars over Essex County

Steve Janoski
NorthJersey

As the B-17's four prop engines croaked to life, the propellers spun and a seat-rattling rumble surged through the legendary World War II bomber.

Rex Gray, the plane’s pilot, worked metal foot pedals as he taxied the Aluminum Overcast — the name of one of the few airworthy B-17s left in the world — onto the tarmac of the Essex County Airport in Fairfield. The plane, which turned 72 years old in May, creaked and squealed on the runway, but suddenly it regained its Golden Age grace when its cranking engines catapulted it skyward.

From left, World War II veterans Hjalmar Johansson, 92, Joseph Quade, 94, and Gerald Gemian, 95, all of Montville, take in the sights during a flight on a restored B-17 Aluminum Overcast on Thursday.

There the B-17 is at home, a silver-and-green executioner coasting through North Jersey’s skies decades after its bomb bays were emptied and its 13 machine guns, dangling from their ports like porcupine quills, fell silent.

“It was the airplane that ended the war in Europe, basically,” Gray, a retired airline pilot from Alaska, said Thursday. “The daylight bombing raids just wore Germany down.”

The Experimental Aircraft Association, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit, runs flights like this on its B-17 to promote and preserve aviation for future generations, Gray said. But it also gives veterans, like 92-year-old Hjalmar Johansson of Montville, a chance to take to the air in the old warbirds one more time.

The Experimental Aircraft Association brought its restored B-17 Aluminum Overcast to Essex County Airport and will make it available to the public for flights from Friday through Sunday.

Johansson, an Air Force veteran, has a checkered history with bombers — he was the nose-gunner in a B-24 when his plane was shot down in 1944 over what is now Poland. He spent five months in a Nazi prison camp before he was liberated by the invading Red Army, which he called a “wild bunch” that wanted to celebrate with their newly freed American compatriots.

But is it strange getting on such planes so many years later?

“No!” Johansson said with a laugh. “I loved flying from Day One.”

America built more than 12,000 B-17s before the plane’s decade-long production run ended in 1945. The bomber, nicknamed the Flying Fortress because of its defensive firepower, was a critical cog in the Allies’ war machine, conducting long-distance daylight bombing raids that eventually helped force Nazi Germany to its knees.

A third of those B-17s were lost during combat missions, and another third were casualties of training and weather-related accidents, Gray said. Many of the rest were sold for scrap metal after the war.

The Aluminum Overcast, built in May 1945, did not see action in World War II.

Harry Parsons, a Bloomfield resident and member of the aircraft association’s local chapter, said the flight is a homecoming of sorts: The B-17’s original engines were built in Paterson, he said, and its propellers developed in Fairfield.

Parsons called the B-17 flight a “living history” exhibit that everyone should try once.

“It’s to teach history to the next generation that comes up, so hopefully they don’t make the same mistakes their forefathers did,” he said.

Some B-17 flights will be available to the public at Essex County Airport from Friday through Sunday. For more information, visit eaa.org or call 920-371-2244.

From left, Montville residents and World War II veterans Gerald Gemian, 95, Joseph Quade, 94, and Hjalmar Johansson, 92, took a flight on the restored B-17 Aluminum Overcast at Essex County Airport on Thursday.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com