MEMPHIS BELLE GROUNDED
he National Warplane Museum in Geneseo, N.Y., has grounded the privately owned B-17 used in the 1990 film of the same name. The original —the first U.S. Army Air Forces heavy bomber to complete 25 combat missions over Europe and return stateside—resides at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. Geneseo officials cited rising costs, notably insurance. Premiums to operate the movie , one of just 46 surviving B-17s worldwide, were expected to soar and perhaps double, driven in part by the Oct. 2, 2019, crash of a B-17 in Connecticut that killed the pilot, co-pilot and five passengers.
