FORT MYERS, Fla. - The B-17 Flying Fortress, arguably the most famous plane in history, because of guys like Ed Lukach.

"It was nice to be up in the air again in the greatest plane ever built," said Lukach, after flying from Fort Myers to Venice in the historic plane.

The last time the Port Charlotte man flew in that plane he was in his early 20's, defending his country during World War 2.

The 89-year-old flew 30 missions over Europe, but there's one that stands out.

"I happened to glance up and I saw the lead plane flip over and disappear, I found out later it blew all to pieces and everybody on that was gone."

Lukach flew with the famous 305th Bomb Group in the Army Air Corps. To this day he still remembers every man on his crew and keeps in contact with some of them.

"There's four of us still living," Lukach said.

World War 2 veterans like Lukach are dying at a rate of one every two minutes.

Mark Murphy helps those vets get into the air one more time. He's a pilot with the "Wings of Freedom" tour, through the Collings Foundation. The tour made a three day stop at Page Field in Fort Myers.

"I took a World War 2 P-51 Mustang Pilot for a ride, it was just so emotional," said Murphy, "when I gave him the controls he started crying, he broke down."

The Collings Foundation is currently on its annual 110-city-nationwide tour. It will be in Venice for the weekend. The B-17 Bomber that took Lukach in the air is one of only ten still flying.

The gift of flight was a surprise from Ed's son, who always wanted to know what his dad experienced.