You often hear about how you can achieve wonders with patience and skill, and determination to apply yourself to a task and stick with it. That’s what this is, besides being a very inspiring and awesome story.

Jack Bally, an aviation enthusiast and Vietnam vet, and carpenter by trade, is the designer and builder of what is probably the most impressive homebuilt B-17 replica you’re ever likely to see. They call it the Bally Bomber, and it’s a perfect fit for autoevolution’s American Month, the virtual party celebrating American ingenuity, dedication, and sheer level of awesome.

The Bally Bomber was completed in 2016 and officially introduced at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s 2018 AirVenture airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin (hat tip to Jalopnik). It’s a very convincing and well-executed 1:3 scale replica of a B-17G Flying Fortress warplane. B-17 is widely considered, throughout its many iterations, the most accomplished and impressive aerial weapon built in the United States. //

He said he would build a replica plane that would have more than two engines, and he and his friends laughed about it. But the decision stuck with Jack and it would prove the incentive behind an 18-year project that became both incredibly challenging and a lot of fun. //

Initially, Jack wanted to build a B-24 Liberator plane replica, but it proved impossible to scale down. He changed his focus to the B-17 and used a 1:9 scale B-17 R/C plane to draw his initial design, which was made a scale larger. Then, for the next 18 years, he kept working and touching up his creation, until it was completed and ready for its maiden flight in 2016. //

The fuselage is aluminum riveted, entirely built by hand. There’s a retractable landing gear and most of the distinctive elements on the real-life Flying Fortress are present.