Historic plane tour stops in Moultrie

• Two World War II planes will be available for tours and rides this week.

Cathy Higgins

MOULTRIE — Witchcraft returns to Southwest Georgia this week.

Witchcraft, also known as the World War II B-24 Liberator airplane, will be on display in Moultrie through Friday morning as part of the Collings Foundation’s 2007 Wings of Freedom Tour.

The plane will be available to tour at Spence Field in Moultrie 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. today and 9:30 a.m.-noon Friday.

Tour admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children.

For $425 per person, visitors can also take a 30-minute ride on Witchcraft.

The Moultrie stop is part of the Massachusett’s-based Collings Foundation’s annual Wings of Freedom tour, which showcases aircraft significant to the nation’s history.

“It gives people the opportunity to get up close and inside these planes and to ask questions about them,” Collings Foundation Director of Operations Ken Miles said in a recent telephone interview.

According to Miles, similar tours make their way to southern Georgia each October.

“But it’s been at least a couple of years since we’ve been in Moultrie,” he said.

Also available for tours and rides is Witchcraft’s companion airplane, Nine-O-Nine, a B-17 flying fortress.

An authentic World War II Liberator airplane that was commissioned in 1944 and restored in 1989, Witchcraft flew 130 missions for the Mighty Eighth Air Force.

Nine-O-Nine, which was also commissioned in 1944, endured the effects of three nuclear explosions in 1952. Then following a 13-year cool-down period, the craft was sold and restored.

For two decades, the flying fortress was used to battle forest fires as it stored water that was dropped on the blazes.

In 1986, Nine-O-Nine was sold once again and restored to its original configuration.

At the conclusion of the tour’s stay in Moultrie, the two planes will take to the air and head for their next destination.

For more information, call (229) 985-7503, e-mail georgiaaviationtrail@.at.yahoo.com.

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