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Correction appended

Want to soar over the Sandia Mountains and the Rio Grande while learning some World War II history?

The Liberty Belle, a restored World War II B-17 bomber, will offer joy rides to paying customers Saturday and Sunday, April 7 and 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Double Eagle Airport at 7401 Paseo del Volcan N.W. It is part of a national tour that offers rides on the B-17 to adults and children of all ages.

Scott Maher, spokesman for the Liberty Foundation, a nonprofit museum dedicated to preserving aviation heritage, said once people get into the plane, they are transported back to the World War II era.

"We start the flight with a briefing of the historical significance of the plane," he said. "Once we're airborne they can get up and look out the window and truly get a feel for what the airplane is like."

He said the passengers can grab a machine gun - that does not fire - and put themselves, at least partially, in the soldiers' shoes.

"Our primary goal is to honor our veterans, to educate future generations and to preserve our aviation history," Maher said.

John Bode, an Albuquerque native and one of the pilots of the Liberty Belle, has been touring with the foundation for a year.

"I've been excited about flying in front of my home crowd," he said. "It's so remarkable in any city. The World War II vets come out and the kids come out. It's great to see a mixing of two generations."

The Liberty Belle is painted with the colors and the nose art of the original Liberty Belle that flew several missions with the 390th bomb group of the 8th Air Force, said Maher.

This particular B-17 bomber was built at the end of the war so it never went overseas. Don Brooks of the Liberty Foundation restored the airplane as a tribute to his father, who flew combat missions in the original Liberty Belle, and World War II veterans, Maher said.

"It was used as a test bed. After a hurricane tore it in half, we acquired it 13 years later and spent $4 million restoring it," he said.

The bomber is one of 14 that still fly today.

"They built 12,731 of them during the war. Five thousand were shot down during the war and the others were sold for pennies on the dollar or they scrapped them. They made them into pots and pans. They used the aluminum to build newer planes," Maher said.

Bode said the pilots of the restored Liberty Belle are volunteers and work as commercial pilots or military pilots. His family has an aviation business in Albuquerque at the Double Eagle Airport.

Bode said he enjoys several things about being involved in the Liberty Foundation.

"For me, it's actually meeting the veterans of World War II and meeting the women that actually built these airplanes," he said. "They were 18, 19, 20 years old - like Rosie the Riveter. The women flew the planes across the country for the pilots to take them into combat. It symbolizes a time where there was no discrimination and everybody came together and did what needed to be done."

This is a repeat trip for the Liberty Belle, which first visited the city in 2005. That time, about 130 passengers flew on the Liberty Belle, said Maher, who expects about the same total this weekend.

The Belle seats eight passengers per flight and flies every hour on the hour. It costs the foundation $4,000 an hour to fly to plane.

Bode said that flying the airplanes is a dream for him.

"When I'm doing tours and flying, I have to look around and see if it's real. It's phenomenal," he said.

The experience has sparked his interest in aviation and World War II, he said.

"It was the coming of age in aviation," he said. "There was such a need for airplanes to be developed around that time."

This story should have said that a visit to Albuquerque by the Liberty Belle B-17 bomber will be this Saturday and Sunday. For information on the visit and how to take a ride, call Scott Maher at (918) 340-0243 or visit libertyfoundation.org.