Thankyou for the answers I was looking for. I got to see the B17 Sentimental Journey For the first time while in college at Illinois State I went and toured the aircraft at the airport then the next day when it left town it made a very impressive low pass from the west end of the Quad right down the center of campus, I was on my way to class and was right in the path it flew! That was impressive the sound of the 4 engines and the visual of the size of the plane were etched into my mind. That is one reason these war birds need to fly airshows and other public events seeing them as working living wonders of engineering and actually experincing the plane is so powerful a learning event compared to seeing a plane sitting in a museum or reading about what the plane was like in a book, the risk involved with flying them is acceptable. Life cant be lived being afraid it must be lived as briliantly as possible making the most out of the planes we have around, sure there is a place for static displays and talks by men that flew them, but it seems wrong and some how disrespectful of the guys that were killed in the accidents that have happened while making the demonstration flights, those that have given it all so the public can experince these wonders of an age gone by . The folks that crew the planes know it can go wrong and will tell you so, but they do not stop because of what might happen but continue flying because of what may happen!