For 60 years, a World War II-era B-17 Flying Fortress sat atop an Oregon service station, serving as a canopy for customers stopping to refuel. It only made it there after an incredible cross country journey that involved smuggling booze and a two-plane pileup on an Oklahoma runway.
Art Lacey created the "Gas Station Bomber" -- one of Milwaukie, Oregon's most visited sites -- on a five-dollar bet.
According to his daughter Punky Scott, the now-deceased Lacey was attending a birthday party in 1947 when he told fellow revelers he was going to put a B-17 bomber on top of his local gas station. He'd learned about the surplus of B-17s and that they could be acquired for near-scrap value. He wanted to use the warplane's wings as a canopy for his gasoline pumps.
One of the partygoers told him he was crazy and it would never happen. Lacey bet the man $5 that it would. While at the same party, Lacey asked a friend for a $15,000 loan. That friend was allegedly involved with some less than legal businesses.
