Aero Vintage Books

Hey Scott, what's up with calling it the mock Memphis Belle in the B-17 News? I'm not seeing references to, say, the mock nine-o-nine.

Disclaimer: I've spent the last 5 weeks working on the movie Memphis Belle, getting it ready for tour for the Liberty Foundation. Judging by the way our first tour stop went last weekend, by the end of the year there will be thousands who now understand 1) the original Memphis Belle is at the NMUSAF being restored, and 2) this one played it in the movie.

Best regards;

Chuck, it was more an allusion to the bubbling if low grade controversy than anything else...not meant to get anyone upset.

Of course, there is only one Nine-O-Nine these days, the original not making it past 1945. There are, however, two B-17s named Memphis Belle so it is potentially confusing. Glad there are those out there who take the time to tell the story of each airplane.

Yeah, I always thought it was a silly argument, until last weekend. It seemed that about 1/3 of the people who knew that it was not the original Memphis Belle also KNEW that the original was at the Smithsonian being restored. The majority thought that the original was still on Mud Island.

It wasn't easy though, to explain to a little old (70's?) lady that this wasn't the original she saw when she was a child. She was so glad that it had been restored and was now flying....

And then there are always a couple of people who ask how the airplane got here. (We truck it in and assemble it overnight....)

Whattaya gonna do, except explain it over and over again, one person at a time.

Patience is a virtue. I spent numerous airshows inside the a very hot FAA DC-3 patiently explaining why a DC-3 was foundational to aviation and then why the FAA DC-3 was never an airliner and the whole flight inspection thing. I was surprised by how many people had never heard of a DC-3 so I had to remember why we were there and most folks were happy to hear about the airplane.

People thought it was at the Smithsonian, huh? Hmmm....we need to work the Swoose into this somehow...

By the way.....did you happen to notice if they were selling Final Cuts? The Liberty Group was amongst my best avenues for getting the books out there.

Oh yeah, we're selling it. There are a couple of people behind the table who have made an art out of turning questions about the history of the B-17 and how many are flying into sales of the book. It also becomes a good way to get pilot's autographs

Seriously - most of the more 'interesting' B-17 history questions we get asked can be answered by your book. We just pull a copy off the rack, flip to the correct plane, and let them read the history. More times than not, the book will sell itself... If we weren't selling it, we would have a couple of copies around to refer to.

Chuck,

Will you have the latest edition of Final Cut when you come to Columbus? I've been meaning to buy it but just too lazy. I guess I should ask Scott if he takes paypal.......

Joe

I think we had two or three copies of the previous edition left. Just pick the latest one out of the rack - it will be hiding behind edition 3.

Cash, check or credit cards - yes. Not sure about paypal - best to ask Scott.

As of now, I'm not on the schedule for at least the next two months so I won't be there . (The last five weeks wiped me out and my day job calls.) But... if Scott asks, I rarely say no.

I hope you guys are just selling the fourth edition....I thought the third was long gone but maybe there was a box stuck somewhere. Anyways, I'm glad to hear it is being sold as the Liberty Group bought a bunch of them in early 2011...shortly before plans changed. The book gets better with every edition, but I guess I'm a bit partial. It's been in print for 22 years now; can't complain about that.

And, yep, I do take PayPal on my site and am eager to process sales.