B-17 Fly-Over

Thrilled Labor Day Crowd

By Steve Bigham

If you attended Monday’s Labor Day Parade you probably saw the massive B-17 fly over your head. The old World War II bomber rumbled its way over Newtown at about 350 feet, causing quite a stir.

Newtown resident Mike FitzSimons, a self-proclaimed antique plane “war bird,” commissioned the fly-over by the vintage bomber. He said he simply wanted to add a little spice to Newtown’s annual march, not to mention, check out the huge crowd from the sky.

“It was an awesome thing,” said Mr FitzSimons, who had flown over Newtown previously.

The B-17, with its unmistakable ball turret underneath, was first spotted over the southwest horizon at about noon. Moments later, it was roaring its way along Main Street. The plane passed over the parade route two or three times, making several wide banks before turning around and heading home.

“I think we broke the speed limit on Main Street. We were doing about 160 knots [190 mph],” he said this week. “We wanted to give the people of Newtown a thrill.”

But the fly-over almost never happened. Due to a low cloud cover, the plane was delayed from taking off out of Long Island. When it finally did, it made a brief flight to Westchester Airport where it picked up Mr FitsSimons and his friends and business associates. It then made the 20-minute flight to Newtown.

“It cleared up just enough for us to get out,” Mr FitzSimons noted.

The plane is owned by the Collings Foundation of Stowe, Massachusetts.

Mr FitzSimons said the B-17 is equipped with what most pilots would consider archaic instruments and parts.

“It’s like driving a 1974 Cadillac without power steering and brakes,” he said.

The passengers and crew on board did not throw any candy from the plane in observance of the parade committee’s request not to throw any candy from moving vehicles.

By 1 pm, Mr FitzSimons had arrived back in town. Main Street was back to its normal self, a far cry from what he had seen from the air just an hour before.

“It went right back to being a sleepy little town,” Mr FitzSimons said.