Was it this one?
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This one and her sister B-17 "Nine-o-Nine" were in ST Louis Monday. Very pretty sight seeing them arrive.<img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> Not to mention the pilot...
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Meet Caroline Lindgren, bomber pilot
Thomas F. Norton
3/13/2003
When a World War II B-24 heavy bomber pulls up on the ramp, very few people expect to see a young woman at the controls. That was unusual even during World War II, when these airplanes were routinely ferried from factories to air bases by the women of the WASP and WAFS.
Well, say hello to Caroline Lindgren, who flies the Collings Foundation B-24J and B-17 bombers during their nationwide tours each year.
A native of Sweden, Lindgren came to the United States in 1996 to earn her commercial, CFI and CFII tickets at the North American Institute of Aviation in Conway, S.C. After she got out of school in June 1997, she started to work for Paul Fayard's Carolina Sky Sports.
"I was mainly flying skydivers – it was a skydiving operation – but his was the largest skydiving company in the country so we flew all over the U.S., mostly the east coast," she says. "We were flying CASAs – I was the first officer in one of those – and I got a little bit of King Air time there, flying a B-90. I was responsible for flight instruction there, too, and banner towing, and demonstration jumps for air shows – a little of everything. It was fun."
Did she ever jump? "Yes, but tandem only," she says. "I have six tandems, and one of them is out of the Collings Foundation B-17. I didn't want to go for my skydiving license though. I did it just for fun. I was busy flying. I liked flying better."
While flying jumpers for performances at football games, Lindgren landed at Winston-Salem Airport in North Carolina. The bombers were there on one of their tour stops. Jim Zazas, a US Airways pilot who was flying as co-pilot in the Collings B-17, introduced himself "because he recognized the airplane I was flying, and it turned out he had worked for the same company 15 years earlier," Lindgren recalls. "He introduced me to the crew and showed me around the airplanes. They needed a co-pilot, and since I was there, and I had the right certificates, they asked me if I wanted to go. And I said ‘Let me think about it —Yes!'"
The decision took "20 milliseconds, I think." She got to fly with the Collings crew a couple of days later, on a ferry flight to Hickory, out of Winston-Salem. "It was my first flight in the B-24. It was wonderful. They had me fly it a little bit and I guess they liked what I did, so they asked me to come back."
That was in 1997, but she was working for Carolina Sky Sports so couldn't join the Collings outfit immediately. "My visa was running out and I decided to quit my job two months in advance, so I'd be able to fly the bombers before I left the country, because I didn't know whether I was going to be back. That's when I really fell in love with flying the airplanes and I started to master it a little more. Then I went back to Sweden and got my Swedish Airline Transport ratings in 1998. After that, I've been back here to the U.S. every year to fly the bombers on at least some portion of their tour."
Lindgren has logged nearly 500 hours in the B-24 and at least 150 in the B-17, according to Ryan Keough, tour coordinator for the Collings Foundation. It is almost certain she has logged more B-24 time than any other woman in aviation history, including the WASP of World War II.
The Collings Foundation B-24J is the only restored and flyable B-24 in the world, out of less than a dozen still in existence. More than 18,000 were built during World War II, of which 6,678 were the J model. The Collings Foundation, based in Stow, Massachusetts, flies the B-24 and a B-17G on tours around the United States, ranging from Alaska to Florida. Rigorously maintained – no easy job, as the B-24 alone has some 1.25 million parts – the airplanes are flown by volunteer crews. Most stops are at small and medium-size airports rather than major cities, as the latter present security and access problems. The whole purpose of the tours, explains Keough, is for as many people as possible to see the bombers up close, go aboard them, and even fly in them.
Lindgren would like to move to the United States, but is waiting for her green card, which has become a very slow process since Sept. 11, 2001. In the meantime, she comes here as a visitor.
She flies in Sweden, but just for fun. "I haven't been flying for a living in Sweden because I knew I wanted to come back and fly in the United States. Actually I've been waiting for my green card for a long time now, but I've been fortunate enough to be able to fly the bombers."
"Pilots Without Maintainers are Just Pedestrians With Leather Jackets and Cool Sunglasses."
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