Yes, I am talking about the Bahama Triangle…the lesser-known and lower-powered cousin to the Bermuda Triangle. Instead of swallowing up TBM Avengers in a aura-driven, alien-derived, time-warp portal, the Bahama Triangle just swallows up paperwork on obscure airplanes. Experts, more or less, have determined that the Bahama Triangle stretches from Andros Island in the Bahamas, west to Tucson, Arizona, east to Miami, Florida, and then northeast back to Andros Island. Photos and aircraft records might disappear if they enter the Bahama Triangle. They might not, but if they do, it might be caused by paranormal stuff. Or maybe extra-terrestrials or government coverups. Beware.

To wit, a long and possibly boring story:

A freshly-surplus ex-USAF B-17G, s/n 44-85600, enjoyed a very short civil utilization in 1960 flying fresh food between Florida and Andros Island in the Bahamas. It carried the civil registration of N3701G. That airplane dropped off the B-17 radar screen in February 1960 with only a few clues to its fate. Adding to the mystery, another B-17G, s/n 44-8543, was immediately assigned the same civil registration number of N3701G. That replacement N3701G has since enjoyed a long civil utilization and, in fact, still flies as Ye Olde Pub based at Madras, Oregon.

But this story is about the first and short-lived N3701G…the one that mysteriously disappeared in the Bahama Triangle.

The June 1959 USAF Auction of Ten Surplus B-17Gs

On June 22, 1959, the USAF announced the disposal by auction of, essentially, the last of the USAF B-17s. These ten B-17s had enjoyed military service up until 1958 or 1959, and had just recently been withdrawn from the USAF inventory. The bid announcement provided the rules of the game and specified that the bids would be opened and awarded on July 21, 1959. Just for the record, because inquiring minds want to know, here are the ten B-17s so offered.

• 43-38635
• 44-8990
• 44-83546
• 44-85778
• 44-83514
• 44-83542
• 44-83563
• 44-85600
• 44-8543
• 44-83439

Anyone familiar with the post-war B-17 fleet will recognize most of those serial numbers as aircraft that went on to fly as, mostly, air tankers. It is the last four are the ones we are interested in for the purposes of this story.

American Compressed Steel Co.

American Compressed Steel Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, won the bids for four B-17Gs from the auction: 44-8543, 44-85600, 44-83439, and 44-83563.

So what of this American Compressed Steel Co.? Not many of the actual specifics of this company are known. It was an old company established before World War II, and seemed later to be based in a number of states besides Ohio. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s it purchased a number of surplus airplanes from the U.S. government. Most notable are the thirteen surplus Navy PB-1Ws (B-17s) purchased in 1956 and flown to Dallas-Love Field where they mostly sank into disrepair over the subsequent years. The company purchased other surplus warplanes over the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Greg Board, Aero-American, and Aero Associates

Gregory Board had an interesting life, of that there is no doubt. An Australian by birth, he first came to prominence in the early days of World War II as a fighter pilot flying Brewster Buffalos for the RAAF hopelessly defending British Malaya with other Commonwealth forces against the Japanese onslaught. He reportedly shot down at least one fighter but was himself shot down several times. After the surviving forces were withdrawn to Australia, he became a test pilot flying Boomerang fighters for its manufacturer.

Board left the RAAF in early 1945 and started a career dabbling in all aspects of aviation, beginning with his founding of a small Australian airline in the post-war era. When that airline failed, he flew for several other airlines and was chief pilot of a Lebanon based airline in the 1950s. Through the years he did much international flying. In the later 1950s, he flew world-wide survey missions for installation of television transmitters, antennas, and repeaters for a company named Television Associates of Michigan City, Indiana. That company, formed by William C. Eddy in 1947, operated a number of Twin Beeches and a B-25 on its survey missions, with extensive operations in the Middle and Far East. The company had contracts with the U.S. State Department to the point where it was speculated it was actually operated on the behest of the CIA, something never actually proven. But, it was during this period that Board got involved with American Compressed Steel.

What his specific involvement with that company is not known, but around this same time American Compressed Steel transferred ownership of most of its surplus aircraft to a new company named Aero American, with the same business address as American Compressed Steel in Cincinnati. Greg Board signed for this new company as Executive Vice President. And, though the company was officially located in Ohio, most of the documents processed for Aero American were done in Pima County, Arizona. Also, Greg Board organized a company named Aero Associates based at Ryan Field near Tucson, Arizona. Deductive reasoning would suggest that Aero American was a spin-off company from American Compressed Steel that transferred control to Greg Board, and that Aero Associates was formed as an agent to process sales of these aircraft for Aero American, but this is admittedly speculative.

Greg Board and Aero Associates were later implicated in the illegal export of Douglas A-26 Invaders to Portugal for use in an African war, and Board fled the U.S. ahead of law enforcement closing in. But that was 1966; in 1959, Greg Board was a vice-president of American Compressed Steel.

The Four B-17Gs

So, presumably, the four surplus USAF B-17Gs were ferried the short distance from Davis-Monthan over to Ryan Field. This is not known for sure…they may have just been moved to nearby Tucson International but they were immediately placed up for sale. 44-83439 was the first to be sold. It was sold in October 1959 to Paramount Aquariums and, as N131P, became a flying aquarium to import tropical fish from South America, surely one of the more unusual uses of a civil B-17.

44-85600, the subject of our story, was sold next. On November 15, 1959, it was sold to Grower’s Export-Import Corp. of Miami, Florida. (Confusion abounds here…Bahama Triangle stuff…as the bill of sale specified “Grower’s Import Export Corp. but the initial application for registration reversed the order to Growers Export-Import Corp….spooky.) Greg Board signed the bill of sale as “Aviation Manager” for American Compressed Steel; a second bill of sale was also executed, duplicating the first but signed by Abe Byers, the president of American Compressed Steel.

Growers Export-Import Corp.

Not much is known about the Growers Export-Import Corp. except its president was C.F. Parker, a prominent Florida attorney. From the available information, it appears that the primary export and import of goods was to the Bahamas. From the record, there was a significant need to transport perishable goods like ice cream and milk from Florida and fly it into locations on the Bahamas. For the return trip, there were perishable vegetables like cucumbers to fly back to Florida.

On December 23, 1960, maintenance records for 44-85600 show the owner now to be Robert Lewellen Parker, also of Miami. I’m guessing a relative of some sort to Mr. C.F. Parker, president of Growers Export-Import. That maintenance paperwork tells that the B-17 was modified with the bomb bay doors bolted into closed position, floor beams installed in the bomb bay, and floor covering of 3/4″ plywood installed totaling 88″ x 105″ (roughly 7′ x 9’…thus only the bomb-bay area?). The modifications allowed a load of 5,000 pounds in the compartment. These modifications were undertaken by Inter-Continental Engine Service at Brownsville, Texas. An accompanying application for an airworthiness certificate (limited) recorded total time of 4,329 flight hours on the airframe.

A point to make: anyone who has been inside a B-17 might wonder how sealing the bomb-bay doors and installing a floor just in the bomb-bay would allow 5,000 pounds of anything to be loaded unless the aft fuselage was opened up to allow entry to the bomb-bay. Curious, curious; nonetheless, that is what the maintenance records show.

The FAA, Paperwork, and 44-85600

Now, getting more into the nitty-gritty of the airplane records, it seems that C.F. Parker had problems trying to actually register his B-17 with the FAA. Earlier, in October 1959, American Compressed Steel applied to register 44-85600 as N3696G. However, the application was incomplete as the bill of sale from the USAF auction was not included, and thus a chain of ownership was not established. The FAA dutifully notified American Compressed Steel, which did not seem to respond to the request. Instead, it sold the airplane. At some point, N3696G went by the wayside and N3701G was reserved for 44-85600.

On December 16, 1959, Growers Export-Import tried to register their newly acquired B-17G in its name, with the registration of N3701G allocated, but could not due to the lack of a chain of ownership. Thus, the paperwork for the airplane remained in limbo, but that did not prevent it from being operated.

FAA correspondence went back and forth to American Compressed Steel and Growers Export-Import to attempt to establish the ownership chain but, as can be seen below, other events soon superseded the paperwork issues.

The Short Use of 44-85600 by Growers Export-Import

So, presumably, 44-85600 went into service in very late December 1959 or January 1960. Speculation suggests that it plied the airways between Miami and Andros Island in the Bahamas, a short flight (both ways). How successful it was is not known. What is known is that, in August 1960, R.I. Parker, presumably of Growers Export-Import advised the FAA that N3701G crashed “on take-off on 18 Feb 60, resulting in a total constructive loss.” That ended the chain of ownership issue, and the FAA cancelled the registration on September 7, 1960.

Thus, 44-85600 was in service for, at most, seven weeks, from about January 1, 1960, until February 18, 1960. This might explain the lack of a photographic record of the aircraft in civil service. In decades of researching these B-17s, I have not seen a single photo of this aircraft as N3701G anywhere. I suspect there might be a few snapshots in some unknown dresser drawer (perhaps yours…can you check?) of this aircraft but they have yet to surface.

What little that is out there on the interweb and other carefully researched sources display a good lack of information about the take-off accident. Some sources suggest that that accident occurred at Mastic Point on Andros Island, presumably at the San Andros Airport, a remote and unimproved airport on the northern edge of the island near the town of San Andros. A diligent search of available records does not reveal any aircraft accident at that location, or anywhere else, that logically verifies the loss of the B-17. There is no located record of an FAA or Civil Aeronautics Board (precursor to NTSB) investigation. One would think a U.S. registered aircraft that suffered a takeoff accident would get some sort of investigation unless it was a remote foreign location and never reported, which is quite possible.

One would also think a B-17 takeoff accident would make the news somewhere, at the very least in Miami where the airplane was based. No media accounts have been located. One explanation is that the remote nature of the Bahaman airstrip and lack of facilities obscured the accident from the media, especially if the intent of the aircraft operator was to obscure the accident.

Thus, the source of the specifics of the Mastic Point details are not verified by any primary source. A serious researcher of civil B-17s would certainly like to see some primary source documentation of the fate of 44-85600 but, alas, there exists a Bahama Triangle black hole of any solid information.

The Second N3701G: B-17G 44-8543

Now, to the second part of the mystery. There were two more B-17s purchased by American Compressed Steel from the USAF: 44-8543 and 44-83563. On May 9, 1960, both aircraft were sold (or really transferred) to Aero-American Corp. at the same address as American Compressed Steel in Cincinnati, though both remained at Ryan Field near Tucson. However, none of the applicable bills of sale or registration applications were actually submitted to the FAA for another four months. On October 31, 1960, Greg Board filed a request to have N3701G assigned to 44-8543, which is unusual on its face. He had to pay an additional fee to allocate that (recently canceled) registration. They whys of his request have been lost to history. Speculation might suggest there was in the works of a sale of 44-8543 to Growers Export-Import and having the same tail number might expedite customs paperwork, but that sale was never consummated.

There was more paperwork that flowed between American Compressed Steel, Aero-American, and the FAA (how hard is it to file the correct paperwork?) but finally, on December 1, 1960, N3701G was assigned to 44-8543.

Just as a matter of interest, Greg Board delivered both N3701G and the second remaining B-17G, 44-83563 (which became N9563Z), to Inter-Continental Engine Service at Brownsville, Texas, in November 1960 to have a large cargo doors installed on their right aft fuselage. For N3701G, that work was completed in early December. Apparently, Board felt the commercial value would increase if the B-17s had the cargo doors, and he may have been right because N3701G sold to the Albany Building Corp. of Ft. Lauderdale on February 6, 1961. However, Aero-American had neglected to actually pay for the cargo door installation and the airplane remained locked up at Brownsville awaiting payment. In the makings of another story, new airplane owner, Leroy Brown, had to sneak onto the ramp in the dead of night at Brownsville to take possession of his new airplane. He flew it off to Ft. Lauderdale where the cops were waiting. Big, bad, Leroy Brown. Eventually, it was all sorted out.

And the new owner’s plans for N3701G? Why, to join with a second B-17, (44-85812, N4710C) to start a small cargo airline to transport fresh and frozen goods from Ft. Lauderdale to Andros Island, and return with fresh vegetables. Thus, the second edition of N3701G made an appearance in the Bahamas for two more years. The cargo airline lasted until B-17 economics proved overwhelming, and then the pair of B-17s were sold to Dothan Aviation at Dothan, Alabama, in March 1963. They went on to become fire-ant bombers for Dothan, and the second N3701G survived through the years. As noted, in 2022 it remains in service at Madras, Oregon, with the Erickson Aircraft Collection. It’s brush with the Bahama Triangle was tangential. Fortunately, the paperwork has survived intact.

One last note: that fourth American Compressed Steel B-17G, 44-83563, remained parked at Ryan Field until September 1961, seven months after N3701G was sold. At that time, John Crewdson came calling, representing the film makers of The War Lover. Crewdson purchased the aircraft for Columbia Pictures as well as two more American Compressed Steel B-17s…those being among the surplus and derelict PB-1Ws parked at Dallas-Love Field. The threesome were flown to England in October 1961 to take part in the filming. That is another story altogether, told in some embellished detail in Martin Caiden’s book Everything But the Flak. Also told, in more reality detail, in Final Cut: The Post-War B-17 Flying Fortress and Survivors. Along with a whole lot more.