B-17G 44-85718 (N900RW), last known as Thunderbird, remains under extensive rebuild in an Erickson Aircraft Collection hangar at Madras, Oregon. Contributor Connor Bond visited viewed the aircraft in early September 2022 and passed on these photos and information.

The airplane formerly known as Thunderbird was long operated by the Lone Star Flight Museum and based at Houston, Texas. In December 2020, Mid America Air Museum founder and president Scott Glover was able to purchase the aircraft for the collection based at Mt. Pleasant, Texas. It was subsequently ferried to the Madras, Oregon, location for the extensive rework. Among the required maintenance items was compliance with the FAA Airworthiness Directive for the wing attach fittings and bolts. As can be seen, the wings are disassembled and in the jigs.

Connor reports that the guys working on the airplane expect another one to two years before the work on the airplane is completed. Aside from the wing attach AD, the whole aircraft is receiving an IRAN inspection…inspect and repair/replace as necessary.

A short history of 44-85718: it was delivered by Lockheed on May 8, 1945, just as the European war was ending, and sent directly to storage. It was sold to the French Institut Geographique National (IGN) from a surplus yard at Altus, Oklahoma, (along with three other new B-17Gs) in late 1947, becoming F-BEEC in French civil service. It and, eventually, 13 other IGN B-17s spent the next four decades as survey aircraft on world-ranging missions. F-BEEC was finally retired in 1984 and went to the Lone Star Flight Museum in 1987. The last external vestiges of its French survey modifications are windows installed in the lower nose section just aft of the plexiglass nose, and the plexiglass nose piece itself. There are no plans by Mid America Flight Museum to return the nose section to the standard B-17G configuration, so the indicator of the prior use of the airplane will remain intact. The book Final Cut: The Post-War B-17 Flying Fortress and Survivors has a lengthy section with text and photos on the history of this specific aircraft.