Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon to Fly in Vintage B-17 Bomber

Look, up in the sky! It's the mayor! Despite a crash landing in September while trimming a tree, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon will climb aboard a WWII-era bomber on Thursday for an exhibition flight. A new release by the mayor's office doesn't state any particular purpose for the flight, but the...

By Ray Stern

December 3, 2008

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Look, up in the sky! It's the mayor!

Despite a crash landing in September while trimming a tree, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon will climb aboard a WWII-era bomber on Thursday for an exhibition flight.

A new release by the mayor's office doesn't state any particular purpose for the flight, but the mayor's presence will help advertise the public flights in the bomber that will be available from Friday through Sunday at Phoenix's Deer Valley Airport. Gordon will arrive at the airport at 1 p.m. for a 1:30 p.m. flight on Thursday, the release states.

A "very experienced pilot" will fly the plane.

The demonstration is being put on by the Experimental Aircraft Association's Warbirds Squadron 20, which travels around the country offering flights in the gorgeous old B-17G Flying Fortress named "Aluminum Overcast."

The group's Web site shows the joyrides would be quite pricey for us non-mayors -- $400 per person for a half-hour flight.

Sometimes it's good to be the mayor.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.