It Must Be Summer

In Southern California the swallows returning to their nests in the walls of the ruins of the old Mission in San Juan Capistrano on March 19 each year announce the arrival of Spring there.

Here in Seattle, the imminent arrival of Summer is heralded in a less poetic way by another bird, an old warbird, a restored B-17 "Flying Fortress" World War II bomber. It comes to Boeing Field for a few days around this time of year just before the big events of Summer: the opening of the Boating Season on Lake Washington (next weekend) and SeaFair which goes on all summer long with exciting events such as big outdoor concerts, a hydroplane race and the Blue Angels. For two days you can buy a 40 minute ride in it over downtown Seattle, experiencing some of the spartan, noisy life on board of its World War II crews.


The unmistakable drone of its four big piston engines woke me up on Saturday morning as it flew low right down my street almost directly over my front balcony and seemingly just above the trees in the park on its final approach to Boeing Field.

Last year I was able to get a still picture of it as it flew past. This year I hastily got my little Canon still digital camera, set it on movie mode and anxiously watched the clock figuring it would return in about 40 minutes with its next load of sightseers.

Sure enough on schedule, I could hear its rumble as it came up from behind the trees and I ran out to my balcony to capture this video of our bird.

Thunder in a Clear Sky

Thunder in a Clear Sky

There was no mistaking it. That distinctive rumble of four mighty synchronized "Cyclone" radial engines increasing in intensity until it was directly, low, over my house this fine Spring Sunday, causing it to vibrate. Completely different from the usual whine of the engines of the jets throttling back as they make their final approach to Boeing Field just a few miles south of my house. I rushed to my front window, just in time to get a glimpse of the ancient B-17 lumbering overhead.


At that moment my memory raced back more than sixty years to the warplanes that sometimes flew low past my childhood home in Trinidad during World War II on their way to Waller Field, a US base there at the the time. My eldest brother was an ardent model airplane maker and with him I would look at the Popular Mechanics or Flying magazines to identify the fighters and bombers or as he laboriously made scaled drawings, based on whatever pictures were available then, for the models of the planes he used to make.

I got my camera ready. I knew it would be back because at this time of year, leading up to Memorial Day, that restored B-17 is based for a while at Boeing Field where the public is offered 20 minute rides in it over Seattle.

As I waited eagerly for the drone that would indicate its approach, I reflected on what a different significance that sound had for millions in World War II. Known as the "Flying Fortress", it was then one of the most lethal weapons. B-17's dropped 640,000 tons of bombs on Germany (Wikipedia). They carpet bombed cities in Germany. Their gunners shot numberless German fighters out of the skies. Accounts of Flying Fortresses returning to their bases damaged to an extent that it seemed impossible they could fly have become legendary.

Who know what missions this very B-17 now taking tourists for rides had flown? What did it leave below in its wake in World War II? It seemed so innocuous as it flew so low and slowly over my roof as I took this picture, a curiosity, a relic, now