One of the most popular attractions at AirVenture will never be available to the public, never be a practical aircraft and really doesn’t fly very well but it always has a crowd around it. The Bally Bomber is a one-third scale B-17, faithfully reproduced over 17 years of meticulous engineering, construction and sheer imagination. The result is a piloted aircraft that takes off in about 1,100 feet, cruises at 90 knots and flew from Dixon, Illinois, to AirVenture for its well-received display. It will likely fly at AirVenture but hasn’t been firmly scheduled. If it doesn’t make the schedule it will be a disappointment to the hundreds of attendees who have seen it in the obscure warbird replica area and listened to its creator Jack Bally describe the lengthy design, engineering and build process, which began with a beer drinking session with friends. “We decided we had to build something different,” he said.
The result is a scaled work of art in which every detail of the bomber that helped secure an Allied victory in Europe more than 70 years ago is replicated in astonishing detail. That would be remarkable in itself except the canopy flips up to reveal a little cockpit that accommodates the instrumentation and controls required for a pilot, seasoned veteran bush pilot and airliner commander Richard Kosi, to manage a four-engine aircraft that is about the same size as a Cessna 150. He has 52 hours in it and says it flies reasonably well but has a tendency to roll. “People on the ground think I’m wagging my wings and they wave back,” he said. Those who have seen it agree that for its humble presentation, it’s one of the most impressive exhibits at the show. “I don’t normally go for this kind of thing, but I’m in awe,” said one of the dozens of AirVenture attendees clustered around the aircraft, which is registered as an experimental.
