Something a bit different today – a 350 metre wide Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress silhouette  into a British field.

Unfortunately the image is currently making the online rounds, but with the credit and with details removed and attributed to ‘two’ unnamed ‘farmers’. The correct details date to 2015, and are the work of two artists and the farmland owner.

From the local paper (the Diss Mercury) in 2015:

“The stunning sight of a B-17 bomber was etched into an Eye field in commemoration of the crews who served from the town’s airfield during the Second World War. Called the Flying Fortress the artwork was completed by Eye residents Carlo Roberts and Stefan Fulcher in the year that marks the 70th anniversary of the end of Second World War.”

“The B-17 bomber planes were flown from Eye airfield by the US air crews of the 490th Bombardment Group from August 1944 until February 1945. The field is located a mere 600 metres from the airfield and directly under the flight path the planes would have taken.

“This most recent etching was given the green light by landowner Tom Baldwin. Mr Roberts, 48, used satellite maps to plot the outline of the design before heading out into the field. After marking out the trailing edge of the wing, he scaled up his original drawing using a surveyors instrument to measure the angles, setting out 37 reference points. The outline was then ready for Mr Fulcher to plough in using a set of discs ordinarily used to break up and cultivate top soil. Mr Roberts said: ‘The hardest thing was working out how to do an oblique view on a flat surface. You can recognise the B-17 because of its unusual tail fin. Stefan is the skill behind it, he’s got a very good eye.’ Marking out took two days, discing took six hours and the pair’s handiwork was initially checked with the help of a drone.'”

Since then the field has been returned to crops.

James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer.

From the local Diss Mercury paper.