Well somewhere SE of Portland, south of Milwaukie, Oregon on 99E you’ll find an amazing sight. Imagine gassing up under the wings of a B-17 World War II Bomber. Hmmm! Well, read all about it courtesy of www.RoadsideAmerica.com.
Gassing up under the wings of Victory! Bomber Gas has been a landmark in the Portland area since 1947, when it arrived and became the region's most unusual filling station. It stopped operating as a gas station in 1991, and has since been associated with the adjacent restaurant, where visitors could grab a bite and a souvenir Bomber place mat.
A serious restoration effort on the B-17G, aka "Lady Lacey" (after Art Lacey's British wife), has been underway at times. In 2012, the nose and cockpit had been removed.
Tipster Blair Shorney sent this account of how the plane ended up in Milwaukie:
Shortly after WWII a guy named Art Lacey went to Kansas to buy a surplus B-17. His idea was to fly it back to Oregon, jack it up in the air and make a gas station out of it. He paid $15,000for it. He asked which one was his and they said take whichever you want because there were miles of them. He didn't know how to fly a 4 engine airplane so he read the manual while he taxied around by himself. They said he couldn't take off alone so he put a mannequin in the co-pilot's seat and off he went.
He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he went to land he realized he needed a co-pilot to lower the landing gear. He crashed and totaled his plane and another on the ground. They wrote them both off as" wind damaged" and told him to pick out another. He talked a friend into being his co-pilot and off they went.
They flew to Palm Springs where Lacey wrote a hot check for gas then they headed for Oregon. They hit a snow storm and couldn't find their way so they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. His partner sat in the nose section and would yell, "TUNNEL" when he saw one and Lacey would climb over the mountain.
They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and they started getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail for a long time so late one Saturday night he just moved it himself. He got a$10 ticket from the police for having too wide a load.
World War II Bomber Gas Station
Address: 13515 SE McLoughlin, Milwaukie, OR
Directions: SE of Portland, south of Milwaukie on 99E. From I-205, Milwaukie Exit- Hwy 224, go west to the end and turn south. Right on McLoughlin Blvd., in less than a mile plane is on right.
To all of you who are serving around the world and to those who have served...Thank you for your service!
Bomber gas station in Milwaukie, Oregon. There, a kid could fulfill his ultimate dream of “flying” a real B-17 bomber. After returning from World War II, Art Lacey decided to open a gas station south of Portland. Not content with just a regular service station, he wanted a gimmick to attract customers. He landed on the idea to buy a surplus B-17 and mount it above the gas pumps. Even today it sounds preposterous, but that is just what he did.
Posted by: service station | December 13, 2012 at 04:02 AM