Free rides for kidsNASHUA – Kyle Herrmann had only two words to say.
Boire Airfield will be a busy place this weekend.
In addition to the Wings of Freedom Tour, the Young Eagles program will offer free airplane rides Saturday to kids ages 8-17.
The program is sponsored by the National Aviation Association and is designed to promote interest in aviation among young people, according to spokesman Harlan Loken.
The rides will be offered at Infinity Aviation, Hangar 117 on Perimeter Road, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday – or Sunday in case of rain – on a first-come, first-served basis, Loken said.
No reservations or money are required, but a parent or guardian must accompany kids during the registration.
– JOSEPH G. COTE
“Holy kazoo,” the 4-year-old Nashua resident said as a World War II-era B-17 Flying Fortress bomber sped over the heads of a small crowd gathered at Boire Field on Friday afternoon.
That wasn’t much different than what many of the much older watchers were muttering as the plane completed a slow flyover and then taxied to a stop on the runway.
A few minutes later, two more 1940s planes – a B-24 Liberator and a North American P-51 Mustang – followed it onto the runway.
The planes will be at, or over, the airfield all weekend as part of the Wings of Freedom Tour, a sort of living history museum on wings. For $12, you can tour the insides of the planes, and for a lot more money, you can take half-hour or hour-long flights. Veterans can tour the planes for free.
Lt. Richard Austin was one of the passengers on the Flying Fortress, which arrived around 2:30 p.m. from Keene.
In a way, the ride was Austin’s 36th mission on the plane. The first 35 were combat missions launched from an air force base in England in 1944-45. He was a co-pilot. The 35th mission was a ticket home to Brattleboro, Vt., where he still lives. On Friday, Austin, 88, sat at the radio operator station and “hung on for dear life.”
“I wouldn’t want to be in the back end for seven hours,” he said, referring to the average length of his missions during the war.
Austin said he walked away from the flight with a new appreciation for the plight of his fellow crew members in the back of the plane unable to see what was going on around them.
“It was really fun and educational,” he said. “I never got back there in a flight. They had a lot of courage sitting back there and not seeing anything and trusting us to fly it like we should.”
Austin’s daughter, Andrea Austin, said her father “came alive” when they arrived at the Keene airport and he laid eyes on the plane. He immediately began describing the ins and outs of the machine to her.
“He’ll give you the gallons of gas they used on each flight,” Andrea Austin said. “He just came alive. To get this last flight is awesome.”
The Wings of Freedom Tour is a division of the Collings Foundation. It visits more than 100 cities in the United States during the year. The tour is designed to be a living tribute to the men who flew and maintained the planes that were a vital part of the Allies’ eventual success in the European Theater.
“We want people to come out and see these airplanes and touch them,” volunteer pilot Mac McCauley said. “They still smell like World War II. They can see what contributed to winning the war in Europe.”
Jan Burtt, of Hollis, said she remembers some of the same types of planes flying in formation over her house in Hollis during the 1940s as practice runs ended and pilots steered their way back to Nashua. She would hear the roar of the engines and run outside to watch the planes fly over.
“That’s when girls weren’t supposed to like airplanes, but I did,” she said.
Burtt applied to a Chicago flight school in the 1950s, but was rejected because it wouldn’t accept women. On Friday she clutched a gift certificate she received as a retirement gift to take a flight in the Liberator.
“I was born to fly,” she said. “I got grounded, but it hasn’t taken away my love of flying.”
Kiefer Savoie, 15, was lucky enough to skip a half day of school with his dad, Roland Savoie, to come see the planes arrive. He has been in love with flying for years. He flies remote-control planes, is a member of the Civil Air Patrol and is already checking out flight programs to attend after high school.
“Just seeing these old planes landing is just cool,” Savoie said. “Normally, my generation can’t see something like that.”
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