From 1950 through the early 1980s, Bolivia came to operate 26 B-17s as cargo transports, mostly ‘meat-haulers’ that transported freshly slaughtered beef from sea-level airstrips in eastern Bolivian lowlands to the high elevation airports of La Paz and other population centers to the west where the beef market existed. The B-17s were valued for their high-altitude performance (with turbosuperchargers), ease of operation, ease of maintenance, and cargo-carrying capability.

Most of the Bolivian B-17s came through civil sales in the U.S. However, there was an interesting transaction in 1956 that sent eight surplus USAF B-17s to the Bolivian civil fleet in a program implemented by the U.S. government and administered by the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).

Early use of B-17s in Bolivia Beginning in 1950

Prior to 1956, there were only six operating B-17s in Bolivia, and they pioneered the utilization of the type beginning with the first B-17, B-17F 42-3360 (Bolivian registration CB-70), which came to Bolivia by way of Paul Mantz and Owen S. Williams. But two of those six B-17s had already crashed, foreshadowing the difficult operating conditions in the South American environment.

However, in 1956 the U.S. International Cooperation Administration (ICA) arranged for the USAF to provide a total of 15 B-17s to be slated to support the Bolivian civil fleet. Eight of those B-17s were directly exported to Bolivia, and the remaining seven were disassembled for spare parts that were then also shipped to Bolivia.

International Cooperation Administration

The ICA was a State Department agency that only existed from 1955 through 1961. Its predecessor in the State Department was the Foreign Operations Administration and its successor was the U.S. Agency for International Development, but in those seven years the ICA largely oversaw the administration of non-military U.S. foreign assistance around the world. The ICA sponsored initiatives in Bolivia that addressed improvements in agriculture, transportation, health, and education, among others.

USAF B-17s for Bolivia

At some point in early 1956, the record suggests that there was identified a need for additional B-17s to support the Bolivian transportation system. The CAA was assigned the vehicle through which a transfer agreement was administered. In early June 1956, eight B-17s were ‘purchased’ by the government of Bolivia and these aircraft came directly from stored B-17s held at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ. Details of the purchase agreement have not been located so it is not known whether or not any money actually changed hands; one suspects it was a transfer allocated to foreign assistance.

To support the eight flyable B-17s, a purchase order was executed by the CAA on June 8, 1956, to obtain seven B-17s also held in storage at Davis-Monthan. Documents about this transfer and subsequent contracts are contained in the FAA civil file on N7040C, one of the registration numbers assigned to these seven B-17s. To quote the purchase order:

This order is placed on a non-reimbursable basis in accordance with GSA Regulation 1-111-803.03. Aircraft are to be salvaged for all serviceable parts and delivered by the Civil Aeronautics Administration on behalf of the International Cooperation Administration to the Government of Bolivia in conjunction with deliver of eight (8) B-17 type aircraft purchased by that government from the USAF pursuant to the provisions of the Mutual Security Act of 1954.

Gordon S. Hamilton Company: Contractor to do the Work

A contractor, Gordon Hamilton Co. of Tucson, was named in that purchase order to prepare the flyable B-17s for delivery and scrap the others for parts. On June 22, 1956, a contract was signed with Hamilton for an estimated $138,808 for the following work:

• Removal of eight B-17s (listed by serial number) from Davis-Monthan to Tucson and then perform aircraft check and inspection services, install specified equipment, repair and replace defective equipment, perform specified engine changes, and generally prepare the aircraft for a ferry flight to Bolivia and continued operations afterwards.
• Perform a minimum average of 3.5 hours of flight test for each aircraft, checking performance of the aircraft including all instruments and radio equipment, and work off all discrepancies prior to the delivery flight.
• Removal of seven B-17 salvage aircraft from Davis-Monthan to Tucson (serial numbers listed). Remove all serviceable parts, load and secure serviceable parts in the flyable B-17s, load and store one government-furnished Link trainer in a flyable B-17, and pack and crate for export shipment the residue of serviceable parts.

The eight flyable B-17Gs slated to go to Bolivia were:

There is no indication these eight B-17s received U.S. civil registrations. They were reserved a block of Bolivian civil registrations between CP-620 and CP-627. Records obtained by noted aviation researcher John Davis document that these aircraft were assigned their Bolivian civil registrations for their initial Bolivian civil operators between October 1956 and January 1957.

But, for whatever reason, the CAA did assign civil registration numbers to the seven aircraft to be scrapped as soon as the Hamilton contract was signed, with the apparent registered owner being the CAA itself. These seven were assigned N7040C through N7046C even though they were never flown.

In 1957, Hamilton obtained documents from the CAA that transferred the title of the seven somewhat disassembled B-17s to him. These B-17Gs were:

It is interesting to note that in January 1958 there was a tentative sale of these seven B-17s, or what was left of them, to Mr. M.C. Morgan of Air Travel, Inc., located at the Old Terminal Building at Houston, Texas. However, the application to the CAA for transfer of ownership was subsequently cancelled. Instead, by late 1959, Hamilton reported to the CAA that the aircraft were ‘demolished’ and the civil registrations were then cancelled.

The Fate of the Bolivian Eight

As for the Bolivian eight, conditions were marginal at best in the high-altitude, low-maintenance environment. Of the eight, six crashed in Bolivian service: one in 1956, one in 1957, two in 1959, one in 1963, and one in 1968. One was rebuilt with the wreckage of another B-17 to fly again, leaving three B-17s surviving Bolivian service. All came back to the U.S.: CP-627 (later CP-891) is displayed at the March Field Museum at Riverside, California; CP-620 and CP-621 became N620L and N621L respectively, and were utilized as air tankers with Aircraft Specialties in Arizona. Both appeared in the film Tora Tora Tora. And both ended up crashing while operating as tankers, N620L in 1973 and N621L in 1975. Thus, one survivor of the eight that went to Bolivia in 1956.

One other tidbit of information worth mentioning: for real detailed-oriented B-17 Guys and Gals, the civil registration of N31851 has been shown on some civil B-17 lists and applied to 44-85817. There is no FAA record to support that information. Well, lo and behold, it turns out that the contract number for the work Hamilton did on the Bolivian B-17s was Cca-31851. Somehow that contract number got attached to 44-85817 which went on to become CP-622

The breadth of service of these Bolivian B-17s is far and wide and beyond what I write here. The main thing I wanted to document was the process of how the stories of these fifteen B-17s wound together.

And, finally I’ll mention, as I always do, that the individual histories of all civil B-17s, including the 26 that operated in Bolivia, is told in Final Cut: The Post-War B-17 Flying Fortress and Survivors (Fifth Edition) that is conveniently found right here on this website.