Famous Yankee Lady B-17 Bomber Makes Final Flight Over Wyoming

Flying between 2,000 to 10,000 feet, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Yankee Lady made her final flight across the Western states of America as she left her former home at the Michigan Flight Museum.

The Yankee Lady had been sold to a buyer in California who will have her disassembled and sent to Avspecs, a vintage aircraft restoration company in New Zealand, which will restore the plane over the next few years.

The new owner’s plans are to keep the Yankee Lady a working aircraft and part of his ever-growing private collection of vintage planes.

This past week, the Yankee Lady was tracked on flight apps as she made her voyage over Wyoming, and World War II aviation buffs were watching.

“It was a really cool experience to watch on the flight trackers, because for the majority of her flight, at least across the plains, it flew at about 2,000 to 2,500 feet, which is pretty visible,” said former museum volunteer and industrial designer Matt Korich. “You can even hear it coming and see it distinctly. A little further out West, it had to go 7,500 almost 10,000 feet to get over the mountains into passes.”

The Yankee Lady

Flying high in the sky, this queen of the airways aptly named the Yankee Lady is poetry in motion.

The B-17 was arguably the most beloved of all World War II air bombers and still inspires people, especially those like Korich, who spent countless volunteer hours making sure she stayed supported and in pristine shape. Flying in the Yankee Lady was an experience he said he will remember for a lifetime.

“It's kind of loud, it has vibrations. It's such an opposite effect of getting on any sort of airliner today,” Korich told Cowboy State Daily. “You know, it smells like aviation fuel. It's got these giant props turning. It was a beautiful experience.”

The Yankee Lady was built in July 1945 and never saw combat.

Instead, she was used by the U.S. Coast Guard for more than a decade, then had a career as a fire bomber in Arizona. She was even featured in the movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!” Bought by the recently renamed Michigan Flight Museum in 1986, the plane was restored to its World War II configuration and was flown for flight experience rides and airshows.

As the Yankee Lady flew over Wyoming skies, the bomber was also a reminder of those who died when another B-17 flying over the Cowboy State crashed into the side of a 12,841-foot mountain in the Bighorn National Forest on June 28, 1943. Ten airmen were lost that day on their way to fight the war, and Bomber Mountain was named in their honor.

The B-17 is fondly remembered in Wyoming and the crash site is not the only connection the Cowboy State has to the Flying Fortress.

Forty-seven percent of all B-17s during the war were equipped with the latest technology at the Cheyenne Modification Center No. 10. In addition, at the Casper Army Air Base (CAAB), 16,000 combat crew members of the 211th Army Air Force Base Unit, B-17 and B-24 bomber groups trained for overseas assignments in Europe and the Pacific.

“For me, the B-17 is a connection to my grandparents and their efforts,” Korich said. “Especially on my wife's side, whose grandfather was a POW in the Philippines throughout the entirety of the war. It's just a way to connect to that generation that was so important to us when we were kids.”

Sad Farewell

The B-17 Yankee Lady was sold in June after the Michigan Flight Museum made the difficult decision that it could no longer shoulder the maintenance expenses.

“There's been numbers of $5 million floating around just to get the EAA B-17 aluminum overcast back in the air,” Korich said. “For a very small museum like the Michigan Flight Museum it was too much of a massive expense. It just put them in a really difficult spot that they had to make a horribly hard decision.”

On Oct. 19, a crowd gathered to say goodbye to the B-17 Yankee Lady as it made its final departure from the Willow Run Airport in Michigan. A formation farewell flight escorted the Lady out West to where she will be disassembled for the journey to New Zealand.

“That morning as she left, there was not a lot of dry eyes in the house, because the people saying goodbye have been involved with the B-17 from Day One, when she arrived at the museum, upwards of 40 years ago,” Korich said, the emotion evident in his own voice. “You get incredibly attached, and people have spent hundreds of hours a year flying her and in maintenance and involvement. This is a hard one as we face the reality of the situation.

“The Yankee Lady is going to be taken to a phenomenal restoration company. They're going to probably do a five- or six-year restoration on it and get it absolutely pristine. The new owner is even going to get the turrets working. So, as sad as it is for us, I know we are happy that it's still going to be flying.”

As she flew over Wyoming and on to the next chapter of her life, the Yankee Lady is a tangible connection we all have to the Greatest Generation who fought in World War II so that America and our allies can have the freedoms we enjoy today.

Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com

Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.