RESTORED BOMBER ARRIVES B-17 FLYING FORTRESS ON DISPLAY AT FOX FIELD.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - They came to see a bit of history, or to remember a father or cousin or grandfather, and some to recall a life they themselves lived long ago.

When an immaculately restored World War II B-17 Flying Fortress touched down on the Fox Airfield runway, the spectators numbered more than 100 - mostly men and women in their 40s but the range was from toddlers to octogenarians.

``You never lose it,'' said 84-year-old Pat Fitzgerald.

The former upper-turret gunner on a photo-reconnaissance B-17 in the Pacific leaned on his cane in front of the Fox terminal. ``You look out and see this and you can remember,'' he said, ``... the good times, the bad times.''

The plane they came to see was Sentimental Journey, a 59-year-old B-17G that was delivered to the Army Air Force in the Pacific too late for combat in World War II. Declared surplus in 1959, the aircraft was used to fight forest fires until 1978, when it went to an Arizona-based group of aviation enthusiasts.

The all-volunteer Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force restored the bomber into what it says is the most authentic condition of any of the surviving 13 B-17s able to fly.

They fabricated sheet metal and swapped parts with other B-17 owners. The top and rear gun turrets, for example, came from a B-17 that decades ago was mounted atop a gasoline station in Oregon as a promotion.

Sentimental Journey now travels from spring through fall to cities in the Western United States, where it functions like a traveling museum for people to tour or sign up for sightseeing flights.

``In the air she's like driving a truck on a flat tire without power steering,'' said pilot Jim Kimmell, a Southwest Airlines pilot and retired Air Force fighter pilot. ``She was designed to go straight. ... She's not an agile aircraft.''

Sometimes the B-17's visitors are old bomber crewmen who'll pay for all six seats for a flight - so their children and grandchildren can get a taste of what they experienced, said Arizona Wing volunteer Jackie Owens. Other times the visitors are the family of crewmen.

``People bring in their scrapbooks and photo albums to show, 'This is my dad,''' Owens said. ``They're so excited to see the plane.''

Leslie Haug of Palmdale came by Monday to watch Sentimental Journey land and to photograph it. Her father served with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II, she said.

``Maybe he saw this one, in the air or on the ground,'' Haug said.

``Amazing plane,'' said Bill O'Rourke of Riverside, whose father flew in B-29s during World War II.

Red Riggin, 82, of Lancaster, had served on a Liberty ship during the war.

``I saw lots of these things in the South Pacific,'' Riggin said.

Mickie Duran of Palmdale came in memory of her cousin, Jose Holguin, a navigator on a B-17 that crashed in New Guinea.

``They had to crawl down the river, eating whatever they could. The villagers took them in,'' Duran said. ``The Japanese came to the village and captured him.

After the war, Holguin became a teacher and school administrator at Verdugo High School. He was the B-17's only crewman to survive the crash and captivity, Duran said, and he returned to New Guinea several times to try to locate his comrades' remains.

``He had a real good story,'' Mickie's husband, Hank, said.

Among the visitors at the airfield Monday was Palmdale's first mayor, Larry Chimbole, who during World War II was a radio operator on a B-29 Superfortress, Boeing's larger and faster successor to the B-17.

Chimbole, who is 83, had been in the Army Air Force. In the Army, he had one flight on a B-17, he said. It was a training mission in Nebraska after his B-29 unit was evacuated out of Florida to escape an approaching storm.

The atomic bombs dropped on Japan ended the war before Chimbole saw combat, but his B-29 later dropped supplies to POW camps, flew over Hiroshima and landed on Iwo Jima.

``I got all the experience without too much of the danger and I'm pretty grateful,'' he said.

Sentimental Journey will be open for tours from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Thursday. The donation is $4. Flights are $395 per person. To make reservations, call [phone].

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Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) Sentimental Journey, a WWII-era B-17 Flying Fortress bearing an image of actress Betty Grable, landed Monday at Lancaster's Fox Field. Below, the restored B-17 bomber makes a pass over the runway. Bottom, aviation fans get a close look at the aircraft, on display from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Thursday.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer