Aero Vintage Books

Thanks for the photos, especially the ones of 44-8543. When she was still Chuckie we cleaned out some of the ground corncobs up in the turtledeck area that had gotten between the fuselage and the turtledeck fairing. The loading hopper was fitted into the radio hatch and some extra Myrex and corncobs...

My best guess is that the top one is 42-102722 judging from the tiny bit of that last digit sticking out by the airman's torso. It's in the middle of a substantial batch of trainers/survivors that were scrapped here in the CONUS.

A long time ago a neighbor of mine told me he watched P-38s being dumped into that pit, but didn't mention them being burned. Could be that the whole mess was lit after the hole was full, but who knows?

Yes, that's the picture. You've saved me many hours of searching, Chris!!!

I'm pretty positive I have a photo of the airplane on display in Stuttgart looking exactly as it does here. I think (not positive, but pretty sure) the photo you've posted was after Biegert acquired her. How she looked when the city got her from Walnut Ridge I'm not sure. The "Great White Bird" name...

Good thread, Steve.

Yes, it was rather hard to strip an entire B-17, usually done with gasoline and lots of elbow grease.

The B-24 mechanic in me is itching to know more about that semi-Carpetbagger camouflage on the B-24H/J in the background of one shot!

Now that I'm home from work, a few comments. Great photos!!! Can't tell which one it is, but 44-8543 is in some of those pictures, and my wife and I have spent a goodly number of hours working on her when she was still in Fort Worth with the Hospers family. These are some of the best pictures I've s...

Thanks for posting those photos!!! I'll have more to add later--it's really neat to see the Forts in their Dothan colors.

That's a nice photo, Dan.
Evidently it became a normal practice to just stow the forward gun bubble at the bottom when no weapons were aboard. I've seen several photos of YBs without armament and the nose is rotated like this one in most of the pictures.

I tend to agree. Somewhere I have a photo (possibly even a copy of this one) that I've always thought was one of the Fortress I that ended up in Africa.

Great job staying with it, Chris! Patience pays off and it really feels good when the last piece of the puzzle drops into place, doesn't it! I chased one particular B-29 for over a decade before finally finding the serial.

Yes, that makes sense, Steve. We've got a pair of main gear wheels and tires from an AT-23 that was written off at McCook toward the end of the war. I sort of assumed that this one was being used for circuit work at Pyote and almost entirely forgot about the tow-target unit. One of our old friends f...

Chris, Trainer markings varied quite a bit, from "by the book" block numerals to basically hand-painted ones like you see here. The Forts assigned to the training facilities quite often were moved around quite a bit so new markings were adapted or painted over the old. Steve, do you happen to have a...

Nice photos, the Ardmore shot especially appeals to me as I've walked most all of the property there as well as flying in-and-out a few times. Those trainers were used hard at Ardmore, lots of flying days available at that station!

Yep, that is interesting. I've worked around several turrets but never looked to see if the attachments for the side covers were still on later turrets. I would guess that this particular airplane was slicked up and the endcaps were added for sport. I'm pretty hazy on when the turret caps were delet...