Assistant editor Jamie Ewan visited The B-17 Cockpit Project’s Dave and Paul Littleton and reveals just some of the legacy of this epic undertaking…
“What’s life without a B-17?” asked Dave Littleton, chuckling as we talked over a cup of coffee with his older brother, Paul. Dave is the founder and driving force behind the Essex, UK-based B-17 Cockpit Project and, with Paul’s help, for the past 22 years has been crafting a full-size, late-model B-17G Flying Fortress ‘office’. He explained: “I’ve tried to make it as authentic as possible to represent a ‘G’ coming off the production line in 1944. I actually started with a B-24 Liberator instrument panel – we kept it at our Mum’s house. Then I built a B-17 panel… and well, it carried on from there.” Paul laughed: “Mum used to go mental at us – there was a B-17 panel on one side of the room and a B-24’s on the other!”
Meeting ‘Sally B’
Dave hands me a photograph of a man in a flying jacket – on his right arm was a patch with the words ‘B-17 SALLY B’. He smiled: “Aviation was in our blood from an early age – our Dad, John, was a crew chief on Sally B and that’s where it all stems from.”
Paul explained: “Dad completed his National Service as an air electricia…
