This B-17 was on static display at the New England Air Museum in Winsdor Lock, Connecticut, for many years. The NEAM was hit by a tornado in 1979. This B-17 was seriously damaged in that storm. The B-17 was later sold to Tom Reilly. Reilly runs the Warbird Restoration School in Florida. The B-17 was slowly being restored. Reilly hoped to display the completed B-17 as the Outhouse Mouse.

At the same time this was happening, Georgia native Don Brooks was dreaming of creating a flying museum that would tour from city to city teaching WWII history to new generation of airplane fans. Mr. Brooks first chance at a B-17 was in taking part in the Greenland Expeditions that was planning to locate and recover a flight of P-38's and two B-17's off the ice cap in Greenland. It turns out that they planes had become burried under hundreds of feet of ice, and the B-17's were smashed flat.

Not one to give up, Brooks eventually talked Tom Reilly into parting with the Mouse. After a year of finish work, the Liberty Belle first took to the air again in early 2005. The photo above is from the Belle's debut at Oshkosh, where she was on display in the very center of ramp in the main display area.

The Liberty Belle was lucky to survive the 1979 tornado, but it even luckier to have lived that long. Most B-17's that survived the war were simply scrapped. A few were sold and served in the civil market. The Belle was sold for scrap, but was resold before she was actually destroyed. She was eventually bought by Pratt and Whitney, who used her as a flying engine testbed. The Belle was modified to carry a turboprop engine in her nose, making her a 5-engine aircraft.