Most of us with a keen sense of aviation history have wondered what it was like to fly and fight aboard a WWII heavy bomber. We’ve seen wartime footage, and classic war movies like Twelve O’Clock High or Memphis Belle. But have you ever imagined what it would be like to actually train for – and fly on – your own mission in a legendary aircraft like the B-17 Flying Fortress or B-24 Liberator? For the past few years, a select group of individuals has gathered in the California desert near Stockton, California to do just that. The Stockton Field Aviation Museum, collaborating with the Arizona Ground Crew Living History Unit, Inc. and the Collings Foundation, will be offering a unique immersive two-day program in which you will learn the essential arts of each crew station of an American heavy bomber including aerial gunnery and bomb-aiming. Then you get to practice your training in an actual flying mission from a WWII combat aircraft using a Norden bomb site to aim and toggle the (inert) payload over a secure range!
This year’s bomber camp is dubbed ‘Battle of the Bombers’ as unlike previous years where just one of the Collings Foundation’s heavy bombers would be present for the course, participants will get to choose whether they experience their training and mission flight from either the B-17G Flying Fortress ‘Nine-o-Nine’ or the B-24 Liberator ‘Witchcraft’. Both aircraft will participate and go head-to-head to see which team can best get their weapons on the target!
You will experience the sights, sounds and smells of 1944 in this immersive condensed training program. You will step back in time and train as the Air Crews trained during WWII.
Want to enlist or have questions?
Call Sydney at 209-982-0273 – [email protected] or Ken Terpstra at [email protected]
ENLIST NOW!
Here’s a little video from Taigh Raimey to show some of what you will see and experience during Bomber Camp, 2016!
Richard Mallory Allnutt's aviation passion ignited at the 1974 Farnborough Airshow. Raised in 1970s Britain, he was immersed in WWII aviation lore. Moving to Washington DC, he frequented the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum, meeting aviation legends.
After grad school, Richard worked for Lockheed-Martin but stayed devoted to aviation, volunteering at museums and honing his photography skills. In 2013, he became the founding editor of Warbirds News, now Vintage Aviation News. With around 800 articles written, he focuses on supporting grassroots aviation groups.
Richard values the connections made in the aviation community and is proud to help grow Vintage Aviation News.
Great Newsletter!
Thanks Steve! Good to hear from you.
I would like to get the newsletters. Thanks, Bob
Hi Bob, you can subscribe here: https://warbirdsnews.com/subscribe-mailing-list
i like old air planes
what happened to the underside ball on Witchcraft? – it’s there early on but by the end of the vid it’s gone..
reply to my own message – should have done that research FIRST – never knew they were retractable…! Clever Yanks!
How much?
As one of the training instructors we are all excited and ready for our students
I attended this past camp (2016). Truly amazing experience and worth every cent. I have a sense of what those young men did back 75 years ago and stand in awe. Everyone putting this on is a volunteer and the authenticity is over the top. I will never forget my time in the B-17. I cannot imagine being at 30,000 ft in -30F and being shot at for hours.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in WW2 history or aviation. Suggest you attend with a friend.