MEMPHIS BELLE MOVING TO AIR FORCE MUSEUM IN OHIO
Published: Thursday, September 1, 2005
NEWS 11C
Associated Press

Supporters of an effort to keep the Memphis Belle World War II bomber in
its namesake city in Tennessee say they're giving up and returning the
plane to the Air Force to be placed in a national museum near Dayton.

"To the community, it's like the loss of a landmark,'' said Andy
Pouncey, president of the Memphis Belle Memorial Association. "This
plane is a landmark in time for folks.''

The plane was the first B17 Flying Fortress to complete 25 bombing runs
over Europe with its original crew.

Col. Robert Morgan piloted the bomber and named the Belle after his
wartime girlfriend, Margaret Polk, of Memphis.

The airplane has been in Memphis since 1946 after local leaders
resurrected it from a junkyard. But local efforts to build a permanent
museum to display and preserve the Belle fell apart last year, and the
Air Force, which owns the plane, said it intended to take it back.

Pouncey said the bomber's move to the National Museum of the Air Force
at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base could come as early as October.