An iconic American bomber that starred in a series of blockbuster films will soar again at an airshow in Oxford later this year.

The last remaining Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in Europe – ‘Sally B’ – will take to the skies for Fly to the Past at Oxford Airport on September 1-2.

The B-17s flew daytime bombing raids on strategic sites in Nazi Germany in the Second World War, while its British counterparts – the Lancaster, Halifax and Stirling – flew at night.

Sally B was one of the last B-17s to be built and did not see war service, but was instead used as a training plane by the US air force.

It was brought to the Imperial War Museum’s site at Duxford, in Cambridgeshire, to be preserved in 1975 and has been taking part in airshows and starring in blockbuster films ever since.

The plane has featured in Warner Brothers’ Memphis Belle and Black Book and Walt Disney’s Noah’s Ark.

It is named after owner Elly Sallingboe, of B-17 Preservation, who was awarded the Transport Trust’s lifetime achievement award in 2008 for more than 30 years of preserving and operating the plane.

She said: “We hope to bring a bit of nostalgia to Fly to the Past.

“These planes saved all our lives and we live the way we do today because of what happened then.”

Pilot Peter Kuypers said: “There used to be thousands of B-17s flying over the UK from their bases in East Anglia.

“But for lots of people this will be a sight they will have never seen before.

“The plane is a piece of history and we fly it as a flying memorial to those that died during the Second World War.”

Mr Kuypers said the plane was tough to fly compared to the modern Boeings he pilots in his day job as a captain for Dutch airline KLM.

He said: “I have been flying airshows for 23 years, which makes it natural, but it is still completely different. Most of my colleagues will say it is out of their league, but the aircraft are both made by Boeing and you can feel the lineage of Boeing from this plane to the modern aircraft.”

He said the main differences were that the single wheel of the B-17 is on the back of the aircraft – known as a taildragger – instead of on the nose as it is today, making take-off and landing “completely different”.

He added: “Of course Sally B is my favourite plane to fly. I am a lucky guy.”

The plane, which only flies about 20 hours a year, iskept airworthy by donations and sponsorship.

Fly to the Past producer Francis Rockliff said: “It is the only one still flying in Europe and it is going to be very exciting to see something like that land and be a static display as well as a flying display.”

l Fly to the Past will take place at Oxford Airport in Kidlington on Saturday, September 1, and Sunday, September 2, and will feature flyovers charting the history of aviation. Oxford Mail readers can get exclusive two-for-one tickets to Fly to the Past by visiting oxfordmail.co.uk/flytothepast