100th Bomb Group Restaurant

While traveling to Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio back in 2009, I happened to drive past two "airplanes on a stick." After GRC closed and I was heading back to my motel, I stopped off to investigate.

I found that the planes belonged to the 100th Bomb Group Restaurant.

While researching the planes' serial numbers, I ran across a forum thread which speculated that the planes were not real but rather were replicas. I inquired via the restaurant web site's "contact" page and, as I was completing this venue for upload, I got an email back from Jennifer Thomas, the restaurant's general manager, who confirmed that they were replicas.

The restaurant closed at the end of 2020, with a new owner opening a new restaurant.

The original restaurant's Facebook page is still live, and they have several photos of the planes.

No word of what happened to the planes after the restaurant's closure.

So, while they're not real planes (and not even present any longer), they are nice replicas.

Aerial view. As I write this, this link still shows the planes emplaced; more recent aerial coverage does not show the planes (but the empty concrete pads which previously held the support posts are still present).