I would have traded in a heart beat for you B17 trip.
Perks of the job, I could have then got my jump seat next week too 
As for sticking your head out of the window, you may laugh, but it is possible. For the last three weeks I have been doing a A320 maintenance course and we were shown an Air Bus Industries video of a A320 were the Pilots forward screen was blacked out and he then opened the window in flight and hung his head out and landed the aircraft. Air Bus designed the air flow over the nose so that the window is protected by an air bubble. The cockpit was loud, but there was no wind or turbulence in the cockpit at all. The pilot just put on his smoke goggles to protect his eyes and it was business as usual. I have tried to find this video on the net, but as of yet no luck.
Matt
Well, I'll be! So I guess an A320 crewman could also use his survival knife to scrape ice of the windscreen in the event of defrost failuer, like back in the old days.

At typical approach speeds, it wouldn't be bad, even without stramlining to reduce flow at the nose. We were doing about 150 KIAS when I stuck my un-goggled face into the slipstream "amidships" and it was different, but not unpleasant...
