Four fully-restored original warplanes from the World War Two era will be flying over Iowa next week, making one stop in the state for tours and flights. Michael Dober, volunteer coordinator for the Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour, says it’ll be a rare opportunity to see the historic aircraft. “We’re bringing the B-24 in again, the last fully-restored J-model flying,” Boder says. “The B-17, the P-51 Mustang and this year, we get the B-25 also. It was the plane made famous in the raid on Japan.” Dober says these aircraft are the “real deal” and appear like they just came off the flight line in the mid-1940s.

“They have some bombs in the bomb racks, obviously not live,” he says. “The waist guns, you can pull up a pin and target whatever you want to as you’re flying over.” Visitors can walk through the aircraft or take a flight, for a fee. Dober says you’ll see how the planes were all business and had few comforts built in for the crews. “When these flew in World War II, you were in the heat, you were in the cold, you were in the rain, you were in the snow,” Dober says. “Then, throw in the anti-aircraft fire. These were warbirds. Their job was to end the war and you need to reflect back on it and just think, my God, these guys were true heroes.”

The tour will be setting up at the Ankeny airport, just north of Des Moines, on Monday through Wednesday. For more information, go to: http://www.collingsfoundation.org/event/ankeny-ia/

(Radio Iowa)