So this is the story of another obscure civil B-17, one was the only specifically modified to transport live tropical fish. Apart from that unusual utilization, this B-17 otherwise has an interesting history and mysterious fate.

Early AAF Use: Storage

B-17G 44-83439 was delivered at Long Beach on March 7, 1945. This was early enough that it was still ferried overseas, most likely to Britain and an 8th Air Force replacement depot. It departed the U.S. on March 26 and probably remained stored at the depot until June 18, when it was returned to the U.S. and placed in storage again, this time at South Plains AAF at Lubbock, Texas. It was officially, as per the AAF record card, declared excess on January 8, 1946.

However, another fate befell this B-17. Instead of being hauled off for scrap, it was reactivated and pulled from storage in February 1946. It was assigned to a base unit at Spokane, Washington, until April 1946. Then it appears it was assigned for three months to the AAF All-Weather Flying Center at Clinton Field, Ohio. There is a photo, seen below, with the marking of “FIDO” on the tail gunner’s compartment, with a caricature of a dog next to it. It is possible that 44-83439 was involved in the early testing of the Fog, Intensive Dispersal Of (FIDO…British acronym later adopted by U.S.) system undertaken in the early post-war years, much of that being done at the Landing Aids Experimental Station at Arcata, California, which had a test FIDO system installed. One version of FIDO had dozens of large burner cans placed along each side of a runway that burnt massive amounts of oil to heat the runway environment to assist in dispersing fog. AAF B-17s were used as part of the testing, but the assignment of 44-83439 to FIDO remains speculative.

B-17G Bailed to Bell Aircraft for Air-To-Surface Missile Program

In early July 1946, left Clinton and was bailed to the Bell Aircraft Company at its Wheatfield plant adjacent to the Niagara Falls airport in New York. It was assigned to developmental work on an air-to-surface missile program that eventually became the RASCAL stand-off air-launched supersonic missile. The RASCAL was at one point designated as the B-63 by the USAF, and later became the GAM-63.

What is a bit unusual is that 44-83439 remained assigned to Bell Aircraft for the remainder of its military utilization, which ended in 1957. It was redesignated as an EB-17G in March 1949, then becoming a JB-17G in 1956. By September 1954, 44-83439, according to a detailed report seen here, was used for “developing components of the director and XB-63 guidance systems. The aircraft is being operated at Bell Aircraft/Wheatfield in conjunction with the EF-80B airplane (USAF 44-8485).” (The report misstates the EF-80B serial…it should be 45-8485.)

The GAM-63, as it was fully developed, was a nuclear-tipped air-to-surface liquid-fueled missile designed to be carried by the B-50, B-36, or B-47. It could carry a 5,000-pound payload and had a range of 100 miles. Its navigational guidance system was quite advanced for 1950s technology. However, it was first generation ultimately did not proved to be a viable weapon. The program was cancelled in 1958.

Surplus Sale of 44-83439 to American Compressed Steel

By then 44-83439 had been retired to storage at Davis-Monthan AFB. It arrived in June 1957 and remained in storage for the next two years. It was declared excess and released for sale in April 1959. It was sold, via auction, for $3,556 to American Compressed Steel Corp. on August 18, 1959. American Compressed Steel of Cincinnati, Ohio, purchased four surplus USAF B-17Gs at that auction: 44-8543, 44-83439, 44-83563, and 44-85600. For more information about this auction and American Compressed Steel, see this Aero Vintage posting.

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 had operations 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.

American Compressed Steel’s aviation manager was Gregory Board, a name that should be familiar to B-17 Guys and Gals. He was a principal in providing three B-17s for the 1961 filming of The War Lover in the UK in 1961, his exploits memorialized (and enhanced) in Martin Caiden’s Everything But the Flak. His history extended will before and well after 1961, beginning as an RAAF fighter pilot in the early days of World War II and ending with his fleeing the U.S. in 1966 just ahead of government charges of gun running A-26 Invaders for Portugal’s use in Africa.

44-83439 Sale to Paramount Aquarium

His involvement with 44-83439, however, was just to get it and the other three surplus B-17s resold to the civil marked as quickly as possible. It is presumed that all four B-17s were ferried from Davis-Monthan the short distance to nearby Ryan Field, Board’s headquarters airfield. 44-83439 received a civil registration of N6180C shortly after purchase, but it was quickly sold to its first civil operator, Paramount Aquarium, Inc. of Vero Beach, Florida, on September 3, 1959. (The other three B-17s lingered a bit longer at Ryan Field, the last one (44-83563) becoming one of The War Lover fleet in the fall of 1961.)

Paperwork followed along behind the sale: the first bill of sale was dated September 3, 1959; the second bill of sale in the FAA registration file is dated October 17, 1959; American Compressed Steel actually applied for its civil registration of N6180C on December 3, 1959; the final bill of sale to Paramount is also dated December 3, 1959. Paramount, for its part, filed its application for registration to the FAA for the new registration number of N131P dated September 11, 1959. It all got straightened out by some diligent FAA clerk by early December 1959 and N131P was officially assigned.

Paramount Aquarium was in the fish business. Actually, a big part of its business was importing tropical fish from South America and reselling them in the U.S. and overseas market. Paramount Aquarium was founded by Fred Cochu and Hugh Schnelle, both of whom had fled Germany in the late 1930s. During the war, Paramount was in the business of importing and providing electric eels to the U.S. government for some obscure secret project. By the end of the war, the company had perfected the air transport of tropical fish from South America to the U.S. and by the 1950s, had a virtual monopoly on fish imports. Several different aircraft were used for the business including its mainstay, a surplus C-47 (unidentified). Also in the fleet was a surplus C-46 (unidentified) and a Lockheed Lodestar (unidentified), and in the mid-1960s, a B-25J (44-86820/N232S). In any event, Fred Cochu saw the B-17 as a good candidate for use as a fish transport and purchased on in September 1959.

As of the application for its first airworthiness certificate in December 1959, 44-83439 recorded a total of 1,310 flight hours, indicative of its fairly limited flying with Bell Aircraft over the prior decade. It was issued a limited airworthiness certificate on December 16, 1959.

Hamilton Aircraft Modifies N131P to Transport Fish

By that date, however, the aircraft had been significantly modified for Paramount by Hamilton Aircraft at the Tucson airport. A summary of the work as recorded by aircraft and other documents:

• Two 20,000 btu Stewart Warner combustion heaters installed in the fuselage aft of the tailwheel. Air scoops were installed under the horizontal stabilizers and ducted through the heaters to the forward fuselage. The intent was to keep the cabin temperature at a steady 80 degrees (F).
• A C-46 ground blower was provided to deliver heated air when the aircraft was on the ground
• A large 5’x5′ cargo door was installed on the left side of the fuselage between stations 525.6 and 588. It was installed as per the specifications of STC SA4-1006.
• Fuselage was insulated with 4 inches of glass wool between the fuselage skin and a new aluminum inner skin.
• Nose section converted to living quarters (???) with double bunks installed on the bulkhead and in-flight preparation of meals.
• Bunks also installed in the former radio room and forward of the former waist gun positions.
• Radio equipment necessary for the long overwater flights installed, including dual ADF, ILS receiver, and radio altimeter.
• Four new engines replaced the existing engines (though this is not reflected on the official paperwork filed with the FAA)

The aircraft was in service with Paramount in early 1960. It had a large distinctive silhouette of a tropical fish painted on its vertical stabilizer and rudder. It appears to have had a fuselage with white upper surfaces and white lower surfaces, with a red cheat line down the fuselage between the two colors. An American flag was also on the dorsal fin, and the lettering “Paramount Aquarium” was added aft of the cockpit.

It was used for regular runs from Vero Beach to points in Colombia, Peru, British Guiana, and Brazil. The B-17 had auxiliary tanks installed in the outboard wing sections and could thus carry 2,800 gallons of fuel. The flights from north to south with stops at various collection points, and then back north again, normally took 26 hours. Paramount chief pilot W.P. Moody and a crew of three other men undertook each trip.

The tropical fish, many of them rare, were carefully placed in water-filled plastic bags. Air was then withdrawn from the bags and 100% oxygen substituted. The bags were placed in plastic cartons and the cartons were stacked in the waist section of the B-17. The bags are sealed with rubber bands and the fish are observed during the flight. More oxygen is added to the bags if needed. In some cases, piranha fish were carried but they were, necessarily, segregated. Cochu noted in an April 1960 interview that the B-17 could carry as many as 500,000 tropical fish in a single haul.

At Vero Beach, Paramount had a large hangar, half of which was dedicated to its aircraft fleet and the other half to aquariums. That half of the hangar contained 2,000 aquariums for fish storage. Some were flown from Vero Beach to Westchester County Airport in New York for use by a nearby Paramount facility where fish are distributed to retail suppliers. In April 1960, Paramount had planned to expand its operation to Africa and the Far East to obtain more exotic tropical fish species, and the plan was for the B-17 to be employed on these long-range flights.

Paramount Aquarium Sells its B-17

However, one suspects that the expansion plans did not materialize for Paramount Aquarium. The B-17 was possibly more than was needed for the South American runs, for it was sold on December 4, 1962, after less than two years of service. The airplane was sold though aircraft broker Graubart Aviation located at Valparaiso, Indiana, which executed a bill of sale that date from Paramount. That same date, Graubart did a conditional sales agreement for the sale of N131P to Air Carrier Leasing Corp. of Miami, Florida. At the time of the sale, the B-17 had accumulated 2,823 hours of flight time, indicating a substantial use by Paramount (in excess of 1,500 hours in about 22 months of service).

The only information found on Air Carrier Leasing Corp. was that it was incorporated in Florida on May 22, 1962, and dissolved four years later on June 7, 1966. The president of the corporation in December 1962 was W.A. Howren.

N131P Crashes on December 13, 1962

The use of N131P by Air Leasing was short. Ten days after its purchase, the B-17 crashed on high terrain in an remote area of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range in northern Colombia about forty miles southeast of the city of Santa Marta. Details of its use in that ten day period are obscure, as are the circumstances of its accident.

From the available information, which is admittedly sketchy, the airplane was being flown by William F. Patterson, Jr. (age 30) and John Lee (age 40). Copilot John Lee had an interesting aviation career that began with the RCAF early in World War II and flew Spitfires in combat over Europe. He went on to fly for numerous operators after the war, and was flying with Air Leasing as a side job when the crash occurred. More on John Lee’s story can be found here on the Vintage Wings of Canada page.

N131P was flown from Maracaibo (presumably, Venezuela), to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on December 13, 1962, based on a flight log found with the airplane wreckage. The pilot’s father, a respected Chicago attorney, reported to the media that the airplane had actually departed from Panama City, Panama, for San Juan carrying a load of beef, but that seems contradictory to the flight record found with the airplane unless Maracaibo was just a fueling stop. In any event, it was on the return flight from San Juan to Panama City when the accident occurred. The B-17 flew into mountainous terrain at an elevation of about 11,500 feet, shedding its wings and destroying most of the fuselage, which subsequently burned. Some parts of the tail remained intact, as did wing sections, engines, and other parts that were carried beyond where the fuselage ended up. There was no indication of what cargo, if any, the B-17 was carrying. A simple cause of the accident might be that the airplane was headed for Panama City, encountered IMC conditions, possibly significantly off course, and hit a mountain. Unknown is the planned route of the B-17 for its flight from San Juan; possibly it was intentionally routed south of a direct line course to allow provide more of an overland route. All speculation, of course.

However, there are some other mysteries involved. First, the only media report located on this accident was published on March 25, 1963, in the Chicago Tribune. It reported that three bodies were found on the plane when the wreck was discovered in mid-March 1963, Patterson and Lee, plus a third unidentified individual. That media report states that the wreck was discovered on March 19, 1963, by a local Indian, who reported it to authorities. A search party subsequently reached the crash site. The article speculates that perhaps the third individual on the plane was actually a hijacker.

Another report comes from Wyman Culbreth, an American living near Santa Marta who acted as a guide for several years in the area of the crash. He reported on the aerovintage forum in July 2014 that he visited the site earlier in 2014 and extensively photographed the crash site. He noted that there were only two gravesites located near the wreckage, and added details that differ from the media account as far as what local Indians recalled about the accident and subsequent events. It is worth a review of the both Wyman’s and the media’s account of the accident to try to sift out further details.

The FAA registration file contains some copies of partially burnt paper records found at the accident site, including the registration application for Air Leasing and some pilot checklists belonging to Patterson. The file also notes that two identification plates for the B-17 were recovered from the airplane and sent to the U.S. Department of State to be forwarded to the FAA.

An accident report was also forwarded by the Colombian civil aviation authorities to the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board, so there is probably more detailed information buried in CAB records held by the U.S. National Archives. However, the basic fact is that the airplane, like so many others, hit high terrain in most likely lousy mountainous December weather and killed two (or three) people. Beyond that, any mysteries surrounding the accident are very unlikely to ever be solved.

Wyman Culbreth posted a video of his 2014 visit to the crash site that shows the remnants of the aircraft in vivid detail. It’s worth a look.

Sources for this material:

• Christopher Brame for research and newspaper copy
• Wyman Culbreth for information, photos, and video
• David Tarrant for information and photos
• FAA Registration File
• AAF Record Card
• Aviation Week and Space Technology issue dated April 18, 1960, with information and photos
• Websites as linked in the posting